Zardari to appear before accountability court today

RAWALPINDI: Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari will appear before the National Accountability Court (NAC) No1, Rawalpindi, in the assets corruption case on Tuesday (today).
The PPP city and district leaders along with People’s Lawyer Forum (PLF) and district bar members have completed the arrangements to welcome Asif Ali Zardari.Asif Ali Zardari had been summoned by the National Accountability Court (NAC), Rawalpindi, on May 5. The summons were The summons were issued by Accountability Court of Khalid Mehmood Ranjha after re-opening of a corruption case against him, according to which he had allegedly failed to submit correct details of his wealth. The reference against Zardari was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). NAB Special Prosecutor Raja Khurram Ejaz appeared before the court while Farooq H Neak represented the accused.
Last time, during the hearing, Neak pleaded that the accused had not yet received any summons while he appeared before the court seeing the news in the press. Subsequently, the court directed to issue summons again to the accused to appear in person before the court on next hearing.
Raja Khurram Ejaz asked the court to reopen the asset reference after five years, claiming that Zardari’s presidential immunity had expired, and he could be tried in the court. In 2014, the Islamabad Accountability Court acquitted Zardari in three corruption references filed by NAB. Zardari is still facing two references—SGS and Cotecna—and on December 22 last year, the court rejected his acquittal plea and the cases had been fixed for January 8 for further hearing.