Zardari gets ‘immunity’ in Toshakhana vehicle case

ISLAMABAD: In view of the constitutional immunity of the head of the state, an accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday halted its proceedings against incumbent President Asif Ali Zardari in the Toshakhana vehicle reference.

At the outset of today’s hearing, PPP’s lawyer Farooq H Naik — counsel of President Zardari — appeared before the accountability court and filed a plea seeking to halt the court’s proceedings against his client. “As per the law, Asif Zardari has presidential immunity. The case against Zardari cannot proceed as long as he remains in office,” argued the lawyer.

Approving his request, accountability court judge Justice Javed Rana halted the proceedings against the president in the Toshakhana case. The development came a month after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), in a written reply submitted to the accountability court in the Toshakhana vehicle reference, requested to end the criminal proceedings against President Zardari, saying that he enjoys constitutional immunity.

It is pertinent to mention here that the NAB last month exonerated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in the same vehicle reference.

The anti-graft body, in its report, had requested an accountability court in Islamabad to acquit the former premier. The court may acquit Nawaz from the Toshakhana reference, the watchdog stated in its report submitted before the court that day, highlighting that the car in question was not a part of the Toshakhana at the time of purchase by the former prime minister.

According to the anti-corruption watchdog’s findings, the Saudi government gifted a car to then-prime minister Nawaz in 1997 which he deposited in Toshakhana. Later in 2008, the report mentioned, then-PM Yusuf Raza Gilani offered the PML-N supremo to buy the same car. Therefore, Nawaz bought the car not from the Toshakhana, but from the federal transport pool, the report maintained, adding that the vehicle was not purchased using a fake bank account.