[DAWN] Former president and Pakistain People's Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday moved an application with a trial court for getting rid of the five corruption references pending against him in the accountability court.On the application of Mr Zardari, special judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court Islamabad issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and sought its reply on February 3, the next date of proceedings.
The judge also exempted Mr Zardari from day-to-day appearance before the court after Farooq H. Naek and Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, the counsel for the former president, cited security concerns.
The five corruption references were filed against Mr Zardari 17 years back. They included Cotecna, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), ARY Gold, Ursus tractors and polo ground cases.
The accountability court in October last year had reopened the proceedings against Mr Zardari in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment passed in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case in December 2009.
In the judgment, the apex court had ordered the revival of the cases which had been closed after the promulgation of the NRO in 2007.
The Cotecna corruption reference was initially prepared by Saifur Rehman, the then chairman of Ehtesab Bureau, during the second government of
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
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Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
and her spouse Mr Zardari were the main accused in the reference while Nusrat Bhutto, former CBR chairman A.R. Siddiqui and six directors of the Swiss company, Cotecna, were the co-accused.
They were charged with taking as kickbacks six per cent of the total value of a $131 million pre-shipment contract awarded to the Swiss company.