Summary The hearing was deferred due to non-appearance of witnesses.
RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) – Judge of accountability court in Rawalpindi expressed outrage over non-appearance of prosecutor’s witnesses in illicit assets reference case against former president Asif Ali Zardari.
The proceeding of the case was held by judge Khalid Mahmood Ranjha in accountability court in which the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) counsel was unable to present observers, raging the judge.
According to sources, due to unavailability of the witnesses, the statements were not recorded into the matter.
Justice Khalid strictly directed to ensure the presence of witnesses in next hearing and adjourned the hearing till October 28.
According to the allegations, Zardari illegally made assets in 1990s when his wife Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister and he deposited the money from kickbacks in different Swiss banks.
Earlier, accountability court on December 12, 2014 had acquitted Asif Ali Zardari in two corruption references Ursus Tractors and the ARY gold import under the legal section 265-K of Criminal Procedure Code which authorizes the concerning judge to set free an accused if he finds insufficient evidence against him.
Additional deputy prosecutor general of NAB Chaudhry Riaz informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that during the trial of Zardari’s accomplice the authority did not put any evidence against former president as he was enjoying exemption under Article 248 of Pakistan’s constitution.
He asserted in the court that the allegations against Zardari were leveled by the Ehtisab bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) but the accountability court failed to conduct his hearing under the provided charged sheets by the bench.
Also Read: NAB references: Hearing of Zardari s acquittal plea adjourned till September 2
Further, hearing of Asif Ali Zardari’s acquittal in SGS and Cotecna references was adjourned without any proceedings.
The hearing was headed by Judge Muhammad Bashir in which it was told that Zardari’s lawyer Farooq H.Naik could not appear before the court due to personal commitments.
