July 31, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20,1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 30: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has clarified that the bureau is not responsible for the delay in the finalization of the accountability cases against Asif Ali Zardari.

“The public perception that NAB (prosecution) was responsible for delay in the finalization of accountability cases against Mr Zardari is not true,” an official announcement issued by the bureau said.

It explaining the situation said that not a single adjournment had been sought by the NAB prosecution in any of the cases against Mr Zardari. “It was Mr Zardari or his defence counsel who pleaded adjournments on one pretext or the other,” the NAB statement said.

Giving examples, it said that in the Pakistan Steel Mills corruption reference the date had been fixed for final arguments, but the senior counsel of Mr Zardari moved an application, stating that the accused had some eye ailment which necessitated surgery abroad.

But the NAB opposed the adjournment on the plea that many adjournments had been granted to the accused in the past on the pretext of non-availability of his senior counsel.

The accountability court conceded to the arguments of prosecution, and directed the defence counsel to proceed with or without the presence of senior counsel.

Aggrieved by the accountability court’s decision, Mr Zardari filed a writ petition against the order before the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, which granted relief to the accused by fixing Aug 27, as the final date to the defence counsel.

The NAB also alleged that seeking adjournments by Mr Zardari had been a practice throughout to impede the progress of trial.