ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: A National Accountability Bureau spokesman on Monday said that no new case would be instituted against PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari 'in near future' and that the decision to release him had been taken on political grounds.
The spokesman told Dawn that eight corruption references and nine criminal cases had already been registered against Mr Zardari which were being heard in different courts.
Mr Zardari was convicted only in the Pakistan Steel Mill reference by an accountability court but the Lahore High Court acquitted him in that case. The NAB has already filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court's verdict.
In reply to a question about the release of Mr Zardari, the NAB official said the decision had been taken on political grounds. He said National Accountability Bureau had nothing to do with the release of Mr Zardari.
Meanwhile, talking to newsmen at a function before Mr Zardari's release but after the Supreme Court's orders, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said he had attended a high-level meeting in the capital which it had been decided that Mr Zardari would be released soon.
Clarification
ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The National Accountability Bureau in a press release has clarified the news item "No new cases against Asif" published in Dawn on Nov 23
which quoted the NAB spokesman as saying that the "decision regarding the release of Mr Asif Ali Zardari had been taken on political ground".
NAB says the factual position is that on a point of clarification sought, it was stated that it was a legal decision whose implementation fell under the purview of the judiciary. The bureau, therefore, it was pointed out, had nothing to comment on.
