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Tuesday, October 15, 2013


Five corruption cases against Zardari reopened

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court has reopened five corruption cases against former president Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the 1990s, officials said on Monday.
The allegations against Zardari relate to kickbacks, money laundering and the illegal construction of a polo ground at the prime minister’s official residence, during his slain wife Benazir Bhutto’s two stints as premier. As president Zardari enjoyed immunity from prosecution, but this ended when he stepped down after five years in September and now an anti-corruption court has taken up the cases. “The accountability court has ordered former president Asif Ali Zardari to appear before the court on October 29,” a court official told AFP.
The probe includes corruption allegations relating to customs contracts given to two Swiss companies that were behind a long-running tussle between the Supreme Court and the last government, led by Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). For more than two years PPP ministers refused to write to the Swiss to ask them to reopen their probe into claims Zardari and Benazir laundered $12 million worth of bribes. In June Swiss prosecutors refused to reopen the cases, saying no new evidence had emerged since they were dropped in 2008 and in any event the statute of limitations had expired.
The accountability court Monday ordered Zardari to appear before it for a hearing on October 29. Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the case. The court had reopened five references against Zardari on October 11 and summoned him on October 14. As per NAB’s prosecution division’s report, Zardari is currently facing six references in accountability courts. Five references – SGS, Contecna, ARY, polo ground and Ursus tractors deal – have been reopened. During the case proceedings, NAB additional deputy prosecutor told the court that Zardari is not present in the country, which is why summon notices could not be delivered to him.
As the notice was not received by Zardari, the court changed the hearing date. NAB Chairman Chaudhry Qamar Zaman was informally briefed by investigators on the status of pending cases on October 11, according to an official. Zaman was then officially briefed on October 12. The court had also summoned the bureau’s prosecutor, Karim Khan Agha, and stated in its notice that Zardari’s immunity from trial had ended after he stepped down as the country’s president.
A NAB official had pointed out that no formal request had been made for reopening these references against Zardari and that the court had done so on its own. However, he had added that the court had sought NAB’s comments on the matter. “Before reopening the cases, the courts sought comments from the bureau’s prosecution wing regarding the reopening of pending cases against the former president,” an official was quoted as saying by a private channel. Media reports have said that hearing of these cases will be a formality as there is no substantial evidence against Zardari. agencies


Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk



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