ISLAMABAD: The Isla­mabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed four appeals filed by the National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) against the acquittal of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari in the ARY Gold, SGS, Cotecna and Ursus Tractor corruption references.

The IHC decision came a day after NAB sought to withdraw its appeals agai­nst the former president’s acquittal in the references that went back to the 1990s. The anti-graft wat­c­h­­­dog had insisted that pursuing these cases was fut­i­­le as the available evidence didn’t comply with law.

An IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Jus­t­i­­ce Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, took up the NAB’s application seeking permission to withdraw its appeals.

Describing the evidence against

Mr Zardari as weak, NAB’s additional prosecutor general Jahanzeb Khan Bharwana said since much of the case record is based on photocopies and is not in accordance with qanoon-i-shahadat (law of evidence), “further prosecution would be an exercise in futility”.

Anti-graft watchdog terms evidence against ex-president ‘weak’

NAB also informed the court that record of the references was missing. It may be noted that the original record in another case — the assets reference — against Mr Zardari reportedly went missing from the custody of an accountability court. Similarly, the original record of SGS and Cotecna references was also missing.

Justice Minallah observed that the case pursued by NAB was of no evidence.

He inquired from advocate Bharwana whether the anti-graft watchdog had conducted an inquiry into the matter.

Justice Khan also asked whether NAB had ever tried to investigate where the original evidence had gone.

The prosecution said that due to these weaknesses, the bureau had decided to withdraw its appeals.

Justice Minallah obser­ved that there is no tangible evidence against Mr Zardari.

The bench, in a short order, dismissed all the four appeals on merit.

Mr Zardari was acquitted in the references in 2014 and 2015. On Nov 24, 2015, the Islamabad accountability court exonerated Mr Zardari from the charges of using his official position for pecuniary benefits in the 1998 SGS and Cotecna references.

The references accused Mr Zardari and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto of receiving six per cent of the total amount in kickbacks for awarding pre-shipment inspection contracts to SGS and Cotecna.

According to the ARY Gold reference, the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Mr Zardari and others had allegedly allowed the owner of ARY Gold, Haji Abdul Razzaq, to import gold and silver without paying duties between 1995 and 1997, inflicting a hefty loss on the national exchequer.

Interestingly, the investigation officer in the ARY Gold reference while recording his statement before the accountability court had disowned the evidence.

The accountability court had in 2014 acquitted Mr Zardari in the ARY Gold and Ursus Tractors references.

The Ursus Tractors reference pertained to the alleged misappropriation of funds in the purchase of 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors at a cost of Rs150,000 each for Awami Tractor Scheme. Mr Zardari was one of the main accused along with Ms Bhutto. However, her name was later removed from the reference.

The tractors purchase deal allegedly caused a loss of Rs268.3 million to the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan and Rs1.67 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2022