January 30, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 29, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: The National Accountability Bureau is likely to open new cases of corruption against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari in the near future, sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The sources said the decision had been taken at a ‘very high level’.

They said former Punjab health secretary Hassan Waseem Afzal, who had been associated with the defunct Ehtesab Bureau, had recently been inducted into NAB to open new cases against Ms Bhutto and her husband.

They said NAB was likely to publicize the cases soon. “NAB does not make public new cases unless it completes the entire investigation and procedure of registering them,” the sources said.

When contacted, People’s party Parliamentarians spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the PPP was also expecting new cases against its chairperson and Mr Zardari.

Meanwhile, a ‘red notice’ issued by Interpol for Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari has been removed from its website. Interpol issued the notice last week and its draft was available on its website.

The PPP had challenged the issuance of the red notice, asked Interpol to withdraw it and sought an explanation from the interior ministry about it, Senator Babar said.

He said the party had received a massage from Interpol, stating: “The general secretariat reviews red notices before and after they are published in order to ensure their consistency with Interpol’s rules and, in particular, with Article 3 of Interpol’s constitution which provides that it is strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.

“Any member country may challenge the validity of a red notice if it believes it contravenes Article 3. The person who is the subject of a red notice may also challenge it.”