ISLAMABAD: Opposing the acquittal of former president Asif Ali Zardari in corruption references, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has submitted a letter to the accountability court of Islamabad regarding pending inquiries into the acquittal of his co-accused in the same references.

The letter submitted to the court on the last day of the hearing of Mr Zardari’s applications for acquittal on May 20 stated that the Lahore High Court (LHC) was currently seized with the inquiries to ascertain how three court judgments carried identical texts in paragraph after paragraph and anomalies in separate cases acquitting all the co-accused of the former president.

The accountability court reserved its judgment after completion of the arguments from both the sides.

In the academic world, this may be called plagiarism but this has come out for the first time that court judgments carried so much similarities, said legal experts.

Accountability court informed that probes into acquittal of co-accused underway in LHC

After the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) illegal in 2009, NAB revived a number of corruption references, including the five in which Mr Zardari was also allegedly involved. These references were: Cotecna, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), ARY Gold, Ursus tractors and polo ground cases.

Since being president Zardari enjoyed immunity at that time, he did not face trial during the previous government.

However, all the co-accused persons in the five corruption references were acquitted during the tenure of the PPP government.

Surprisingly, the LHC also received various complaints filed by the citizens based on press reports according to which in at least three major corruption cases against Mr Zardari – Cotecna, SGS, and ARY Gold - the authors while writing judgments used similar words, expressions and even paragraphs.

Subsequently, the LHC administrative committee/inspection team initiated an inquiry last year about complaints of ‘favourable’ decisions passed by the accountability courts of Rawalpindi in the corruption references against Mr Zardari.

The accountability court of Islamabad reopened the references after expiry of the term of Mr Zardari in October last year.

The former president, however, filed applications for his acquittal without facing trial after he made appearance in the accountability court earlier this year.

During the hearing of the applications filed with the accountability court, Mr Zardari’s counsel Farooq H. Naek relied upon the previous judgments of the accountability courts in which all the co-accused had been released. He argued that the prosecution had to prove its cases on the basis of the evidence it produced earlier. Therefore, there is no chance of conviction of Mr Zardari as other accused persons have already been acquitted, he contended.

However, opposing the acquittal of Mr Zardari, NAB prosecutor Riaz Chaudhry submitted an LHC letter to the accountability judge Mohammad Bashir on May 20, the day when the court reserved judgments on the acquittal pleas.

Some legal experts are of the view that in such circumstances when a favourable order of a trial court is being scrutinised by the high court, an accused cannot get benefit of it.

“There should be some valid reasons for which the high court starts an inquiry against passing of any judgment,” said senior lawyer Mohammad Akram Sheikh.

During the inquiry, the high court has the power to declare the order invalid or it can recommend certain action against the author in case the administrative committee/inspection team confirmed anomalies in the judgment, he said.

“In my humble opinion, until or unless the high court would not clear the status of any judgment, the trial court cannot extend relief to any accused or co-accused,” he added.

Advocate Mohammad Ramzan Chaudhry, the incumbent vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), however said until set aside by the appellate court, the order of a trial court remained intact. But he also said any accused or co-accused cannot be given benefit on the basis of a previously held trial. “If the trial court acquits certain accused persons after completing the trial, those who had not faced the trial and wanted acquittal have to undergo through the same exercise,” he added.

When contacted, Advocate Arshad Tabrez, a former judge of the Islamabad High Court and one of the counsel for Mr Zardari, said the former president was facing politically-motivated cases in which all the accused persons had already been acquitted. He said the pending inquiry on the earlier judgments of the accountability courts was an internal matter of the LHC and Mr Zardari cannot be denied his due rights on the proposed outcome of these inquiries.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2014