Judge of accountability court (AC) in Rawalpindi Wednesday 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 AC in which the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) counsel was unable to present witnesses. 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 28 October.
According to the allegations, Zardari illegally made assets in 1990s when his wife Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister and deposited the money from kickbacks in different Swiss banks.
Earlier, AC on 12 December 2014 had acquitted 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.
