ISLAMABAD, May 25: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing of a bail application of detained Pakistan People's Party leader Asif Ali Zardari in the BMW car reference till June 8 on the request of the National Accountability Bureau.

A bench comprising Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday adjourned the hearing after NAB counsel Ibrahim Satti said the bureau needed time to bring the evidence of three more prosecution witnesses on record. He promised to do so by May 31.

Mr Zardari is accused of importing a luxury vehicle in the name of a student to evade millions of rupees in customs duty when his wife Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister. The case has been pending in a Rawalpindi accountability court for two years.

Defence counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada objected to the request for adjournment and said the prosecution had already added supplementary material in the case only to delay the matter.

He argued that his client had been in detention for 10 years and many references relating to corruption had been filed against him. He said his client was granted bail in all the cases except the present one.

He said Mr Zardari was granted bail in a narcotics case on Dec 15, 2001, which was the last case pending against him, but the prosecution filed the BMW reference the same day to prevent his release, while the trial began in May 2002.

He told the court that the car was in NAB custody and the amount of evaded customs duty was Rs5.5 million. Defence counsel Senator Farooq Naek told newsmen later that the car had been imported after the payment of duties in accordance with the rules and regulations.