June 29, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 28: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has asked the authorities concerned to defreeze and release all bank accounts and properties of Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, which were frozen in connection with corruption cases against him.

“In the light of court orders, NAB has directed all authorities concerned, including the Sindh chief secretary, to defreeze all bank accounts and properties of Mr Zardari, as cases against him have already been dropped under the National Reconciliation Ordinance,” NAB chairman Navaid Ahsan told Dawn on Saturday.

He said the decision was taken a couple of days ago by NAB on the directive of an accountability court.

He said the Sindh chief secretary had been given the task to defreeze the bank accounts and properties wherever they existed. “I cannot give you the exact details of Mr Zardari’s frozen bank accounts and properties,” he said, adding that the chief secretary was in a better position to say anything on the issue.

The Rawalpindi accountability court had quashed seven corruption cases against Mr Zardari. Under the NRO, all corruption cases against politicians and bureaucrats registered since the Oct 1999 takeover had been dismissed.

The move had paved the way for Benazir Bhutto’s return from exile before she was assassinated in December last year.

The cases dropped against Mr Zardari include illegal payments relating to the purchase of tractors and construction of a polo ground inside the Prime Minister’s House. However, a money-laundering case is still pending against him in Switzerland.

Mr Zardari spent over eight years in jail without being convicted and has been insisting that the charges were politically motivated.