KARACHI, May 13: Justice Bin Yamin of the Sindh High Court quashed on Tuesday the so-called container case against Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari and former high commissioner in London Wajid Shamsul Hasan.

The case was instituted by the Federal Investigation Agency in February 1997. It alleged that Mr Zardari, a federal minister in his spouse Benazir Bhutto’s cabinet, sent eight wooden boxes of precious artifacts by the Pakistan International Airlines to the United Kingdom in May 1996. No customs duty or freight charges were paid and the consignment was received at Heathrow by an agent authorised by Mr Shamsul Hasan, the then Pakistan high commissioner in London.

An interim charge-sheet was submitted under the penal code, the customs act and the anti-corruption law in the federal anti-corruption court, Karachi, which was later accepted as final and charge was framed in September 1997.

The proceedings had a chequered history as a number of supplementary charge-sheets were submitted and witnesses sought to be introduced. PIA managing director Nawaz Tiwana was arraigned as co-accused in place of his predecessor, Air Marshal (retd) Umar Farooq. Customs deputy collector Nazeer Ahmed Shah was also cited as co-accused. Both of them were let off for lack of evidence.

Mr Zardari, who said that the consignment contained his personal effects not chargeable with the customs duty, also filed an acquittal application under Section 249-A of the criminal procedure code, which was dismissed by the trial court. He said the air freight was paid as per rules.

An identical application on Mr Shamsul Hasan’s behalf was also dismissed and the case remained pending without further proceedings. The ex-HC said he had no role in the alleged offence and the prosecution had failed to make out a case against him.

The two accused then approached the high court for quashment of the case and the petition was finally heard last week. Advocates Mian Khan Malik, Abu Bakr Zardari and Adnan Karim appeared for the applicants. Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui represented the federation. The court allowed the criminal revision of applications and quashed the case against both the applicants.

HAQQANI’S PLEA: Meanwhile, hearing of a criminal revision application moved by former chairman of the House Building Finance Corporation, Hussain Haqqani, was adjourned for May 20. He was booked by the FIA for advancing a loan of Rs10 million to Assets Bank, a financial institution of dubious credentials. His plea for acquittal under Section 249-A, CrPC, was also dismissed by the trial court.

His counsel, Adnan Karim, argued that no wrongful gain was made by the accused nor a wrongful loss caused to the exchequer on account of the alleged offence. The entire amount had been repaid and the material produced by the prosecution could not sustain a trial, least of all conviction. The case was registered under pressure from the PML-N accountability chief, Saifur Rehman Khan, to victimise those associated with the PPP government.