ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, on Tuesday, granted bail to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari in his pre-arrest bail application in the US properties case.
Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, while announcing its reserved judgment approved Zardari’s application seeking pre-arrest bail in the US properties case against him, which is currently under investigation in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The court turned down the NAB request to reject Zardari’s application.
According to the court order, the NAB will not arrest Zardari with respect to investigation of the US properties case. NAB will have approach court for arrest of the Zardari during the investigation of this case, the judgment said.
Earlier, during the hearing, Zardari’s Counsel Farooq H Naek, while arguing before the court said that under the NAB law, the chairman NAB has the power to order arrest of the accused at any stage.
According to the NAB reply, no warrant of arrest has been issued against the accused so far, he said, adding the NAB had issued a questionnaire to the accused.
“The accused is on medical bail in different cases and we have filed this application for safeguarding his client from the administration from law,” he said, adding that “we have apprehension that the NAB might arrest him.”
Naek told the court that Zardari’s medical has also been enclosed with the plea.
Zardari is suffering from various ailments and is undergoing treatment.
He requested the court that the bail of his client may be confirmed.
Responding to the counsel, the NAB prosecutor, Sohail Arif, told that the bureau have not issued arrest warrant of the former president so far.
The NAB cannot be restrained to arrest an accused or not, he said; therefore, the petition should be turned down.
The court reserved its judgement on Zardari’s bail plea for some time following completion of the arguments of both the parties.
After appearing before the Accountability Court, Zardari, while talking informally to reporters ruled out the possibility that the PPP would become part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) again.
When former president was asked that would PPP become part of the PDM again, he replied that he did not think that his party would become part of the PDM again.
To a question about in-house change, he said that “keep your fingers crossed,” adding, inshaAllah, everything will be alright.
Zardari said it was his desire from the day one that the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government be sent home.
The government was unable to handle national affairs, he said, adding that time had proven his stance that the PTI-led government was ineligible.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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