An Accountability Court will resume hearing of BMW corruption reference against Asif Ali Zardari here on Monday. Judge Accountability Court No 3 Zaheer Qadri had taken serious notice of the absence of the accused on the last date of hearing.
Last month, the Judge also is tied the summons of Raja Pervez Ashraf MNA, who is guarantor of the accused for Monday (September 5).
Zardari has been accused of impersonating as a student and importing 1993 model armoured luxury vehicle with the intention to evade duties. The national exchequer was deprived of Rs 10m due to this deal.
The prosecution claimed the actual price of the bullet-proof armoured vehicle, with an unladen weight of 2,560 kg was 55,00 pounds. But, to evade the duty, the accused showed the weight of the car as 1,610 kg purchased at a price of 12,000 pounds.
The import of the car was allegedly arranged by Fareed Veerani, the owner of Agha super store of Karachi, from London in the name of Sajjad Qayyum, a Pakistani student under the personal baggage scheme. Even the freight charges of the PIA were not fully paid, the prosecution alleged. A sum of Rs 5.5 million duty was paid by Doost Mohammed, an employee of Bilawal House, while the customs duty was cleared by Jumbo customs clearance agency.
The prosecution alleged that the accused did not claim the vehicle when it came for maintenance at the workshop of Aitezaz Ahmed, the brother-in-law of former Chairman of Capital Development Authority Shafi Sehwani.