August 24, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani 14, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, has dismissed Asif Ali Zardari’s petition, seeking a direction for the accountability court that it should first decide on his application seeking quashment of the case, before starting final arguments in the Steel Mills case.

A division bench of the LHC, Rawalpindi Bench, after hearing Abdul Baseer Qureshi, who argued that the petitioner was employing delaying tactics, dismissed the petition on Thursday.

The petitioner had contended that its application under section 265K of CrPC should be decided before starting final arguments in the Steel Mills reference.

Under this provision, the court has powers to acquit an accused at any stage of the case, if it, after hearing the prosecutor and the accused it consider the accused had no chance of being convicted.

The NAB counsel stated that the case of Asif Ali Zardari was in the final stages and the petitioner was employing delaying tactics to thwart the decision. He said that evidence of both sides have been completed and the high court had fixed Aug 27 for the start of arguments.

Asif Ali Zardari, who behind bars since 1996, is carries no conviction so far. His conviction in the pre-shipment case in 1999, was set aside by the supreme court and the matter was remanded to the competent court.

There are total of 13 cases against Asif Ali Zardari. Six pertain to his alleged corruption and six others are criminal cases including four murder cases.

He has been granted bail by court in 12 cases so far, but the government put up another case against him before his released.