Zardari acquitted in final corruption reference

RAWALPINDI: Accountability Court, Rawalpindi, on Saturday acquitted Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in what was the final corruption reference pending against him. The court  acquitted former president as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) failed to bring any concrete evidence or witness against Zardari.

In the reference, Zardari and his wife, late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been accused of acquiring assets through illegal means. The case was based on a reference filed by NAB in 2001 during former president Pervez Musharraf’s era, for allegedly acquiring assets through illegal means in Pakistan and abroad.

The plea for Zardari's acquittal, submitted by his counsel and PPP leader Farooq H Naek, was accepted by Justice Khalid Mehmood Ranjha, who ruled that the reference lacked a legal basis. The court noted that the NAB reference was not maintainable as the evidence submitted by the graft watchdog was in the form of photostat copies only, which held no legal value.

Reacting to her father's acquittal, Bakhtawar Bhutto tweeted, “while Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif hide from NAB, my father Asif Ali Zardari has been acquitted in the last pending case. He faced 11-year prison without a single conviction,"  Bakhtawar said. 

Meanwhile, PPP leaders congratulated Asif Ali Zardari
following acquittal from bogus cases filed during the previous government. Zardari thanked them and said  it was all the result of his patience and prayers of the poor and party activists. Zardari expressed these views while meeting party leaders in Islamabad on Saturday. Asif Zardari thanked all party leaders and workers on winning, what he called, "judicial war." PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and PPPP’s Secretary General Senator Farhatullah Babar said those accusing him including Imran Khan, should face the truth now. He said they always respect law and will always do so.