Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday sought the record of trial proceedings of ARY and Ursus corruption reference from National Accountability Bureau (NAB) while hearing NAB's appeal against the acquittal of former president Asif Ali Zardari in these references. A division bench comprising Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Justice Aamir Farooq took up the case.
An accountability court in Islamabad acquitted Zardari in the Ursus Tractors and the ARY gold import case on December 12, 2014. Accountability judge Mohammad Bashir pronounced this decision under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code which empowers a judge to acquit an accused on the basis of insufficient evidence. The accountability court acquitted Zardari after his counsel Farooq H. Naek informed the judge that the co-accused in both the above mentioned references have already been acquitted by the accountability court.
In the appeal, NAB claimed that a key witness, former joint secretary of Ehtisab Cell Hassan Wasim Afzal, was not available during the trial of Zaradri's two co-accused conducted during the tenure of the government of Pakistan People's Party (PPP); but contended that he is ready to testify before the accountability court now.
NAB's additional deputy prosecutor general (ADPG) Chaudhry Riaz told the court that during the trial of Zardari's co-accused the Bureau did not place evidence against Zardari on the judicial record as, at that time, he was the President and enjoying immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution of Pakistan. ARY reference is for the grant of licences to ARY Traders for import of gold and silver that allegedly caused Rs 18.2 million loss to the public exchequer.
The Urusus tractors deal is about alleged misappropriation in the purchase of 5900 Russian and Polish tractors for Awami Tractor Scheme with a reported loss of Rs 268.3 million to Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) and Rs 1.67 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
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