NAB to withdraw appeals in corruption cases against former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
In a major win for former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) decided to withdraw appeals in corruption cases against him, ARY News reported. The corruption cases were registered against the PPP co-chairman 25 years ago.
A plea has also been filed in the Islamabad High Court seeking the withdrawal of four appeals against Asif Ali Zardari. The NAB said that the records against Asif Zardari are not "sufficient". Further, the evidence that is relevant to the matter is also in the form of photostat copies. The NAB in its plea submitted to the IHC said that pursuing the cases further will be an exercise of wasting time.
The original record in the matter had reportedly gone missing from the custody of an accountability court, besides the original case record of SGS and Cotecna corruption references. The accountability court exonerated Zardari from charges of using an official position for monetary benefits in the 1998 SGS-Cotecna corruption references on November 24, 2015.
Zardari and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto were accused of receiving six per cent of the total amount as kickbacks for awarding pre-shipment inspection contracts to SGS and Cotecna.
Earlier, Zardari moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) through his counsel seeking withdrawal of the acquittal appeal in a reference pertaining to a suspicious transaction worth Rs 8 billion. An accountability court (AC) had rejected his petition. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a restraining order on the proceedings of the AC.
The Dawn reported that according to the ARY Gold reference, Bhutto, Zardari and others allegedly allowed ARY Gold owner Haji Abdul Razzaq to import gold and silver without paying duties between 1995 and 1997. But the evidence was disowned by the investigation officer when he recorded his statement before the accountability court.
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In 2014, the accountability court acquitted Zardari in ARY Gold and Ursus tractors references.
The Ursus reference was about the alleged misappropriation of funds in the deal of buying 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors at a cost of Rs 150,000 each for the Awami Tractor Scheme. While Zardari was one of the main accused along with Bhutto, her name was later removed from the reference.
The tractors purchase deal allegedly caused a Rs 268.3 million loss to the former Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (now the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited) and Rs 1.67 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan.
The Islamabad High Court was informed in December last year that the original record of the reference had gone missing.
The court reprimanded the NAB for wasting the court's time and failing to realise for seven years that the appeals were filed without the original record.
(With inputs from agencies)
