ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: District and Sessions Judge Islamabad Rafi-uz-Zaman on Thursday issued non-bailable warrants of arrest for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari in the assets declaration case, an official of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said.

It is for the third time that this court has issued non-bailable warrants for the two PPP leaders in the said case.

NAB had filed a petition that the former prime minister and her husband had made a false declaration of their assets before the 1993 general elections.

As the two were not present during the proceedings of the case, the court issued their non-bailable arrest warrants, after hearing senior NAB prosecutor Abdul Baseer Qureshi. The court also ordered the authorities concerned to serve notices to the accused through Interpol.

In its petition, the NAB said that Ms Bhutto and her husband had amassed wealth in foreign countries through illegal means.

“It is on account of this fact that they suppressed the fact of ownership of these properties abroad in their declaration of assets before the Election Commission of Pakistan,” said the NAB official.

The accused had admitted the ownership of these properties before the Swiss court, he added.

Meanwhile, the PPP denounced the arrest warrants, calling it an abuse of the judicial process by the Musharraf regime.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari had declared their assets before the returning officers in Larkana and Nawabshah respectively in 1993 and no objection was raised at that time.

Even if the two had made false declaration of their assets, as alleged, it was for the chief election commissioner to serve a notice and seek comments and not for the NAB, he said.

The NAB was ignoring cases of mega corruption, and only running after Ms Bhutto because she had refused to submit to the dictatorial demands of the regime, he said.

The spokesman called upon the NAB to tell people what action had been taken in cases ‘involving mega corruption’ like the Steel Mills privatisation, sugar scandal, oil price fixation, Tawana Pakistan project, purchase of defective Chinese locomotives, sale of Khosgi Sugar Mill by Fauji Foundation without bidding, award of contract for 132KV grid station at Kamra in 1995 without bidding, as well as many cases of corruption, misuse of authority and accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income against sitting ministers and parliament members. No arrest had been made in any of these cases, he added.