Black Zero
Test Debutant
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- Dec 10, 2009
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1354100/zardari-acquitted-in-last-nab-reference-against-him
PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was acquitted on Saturday by an accountability court in Rawalpindi in what was the final corruption reference still pending against him.
The case against the former president was based on a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during former president Pervez Musharraf's era for allegedly acquiring assets through illegal means in Pakistan and abroad.
The request for Zardari's acquittal, submitted by his counsel and PPP leader Farooq H. Naek, was accepted by Justice Khalid Mahmood Ranjha, who ruled that the reference lacked a legal basis.
"While Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif hide from NAB, my father Asif Ali Zardari's last pending case has just been acquitted [sic]. Faced 11+ years without a single conviction," Zardari's daughter, Bakhtawar, tweeted after the acquittal.
Zardari had previously been exempted from appearing in the case owing to security concerns.
The reference was filed before an accountability court in 2001, but was closed in 2007 under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) issued by the government of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.
However, the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the NRO case on December 2009, had ordered the revival of all cases closed under the ordinance. By then, however, Zardari had been sworn in as president and therefore enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution.
Zardari has faced a total of six corruption references: apart from the assets reference, the former president was also implicated in the SGS, Cotecna, Polo Ground, Ursus Tractors and ARY Gold corruption references.
NAB re-opened these references once Zardari had completed his term office, but the former president had already been acquitted in five of the six references after a re-trial before the accountability court.
PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was acquitted on Saturday by an accountability court in Rawalpindi in what was the final corruption reference still pending against him.
The case against the former president was based on a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during former president Pervez Musharraf's era for allegedly acquiring assets through illegal means in Pakistan and abroad.
The request for Zardari's acquittal, submitted by his counsel and PPP leader Farooq H. Naek, was accepted by Justice Khalid Mahmood Ranjha, who ruled that the reference lacked a legal basis.
"While Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif hide from NAB, my father Asif Ali Zardari's last pending case has just been acquitted [sic]. Faced 11+ years without a single conviction," Zardari's daughter, Bakhtawar, tweeted after the acquittal.
Zardari had previously been exempted from appearing in the case owing to security concerns.
The reference was filed before an accountability court in 2001, but was closed in 2007 under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) issued by the government of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.
However, the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the NRO case on December 2009, had ordered the revival of all cases closed under the ordinance. By then, however, Zardari had been sworn in as president and therefore enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution.
Zardari has faced a total of six corruption references: apart from the assets reference, the former president was also implicated in the SGS, Cotecna, Polo Ground, Ursus Tractors and ARY Gold corruption references.
NAB re-opened these references once Zardari had completed his term office, but the former president had already been acquitted in five of the six references after a re-trial before the accountability court.
