KARACHI / ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, jailed on corruption charges on Nov 4, 1996, was released after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the BMW car reference , a prison official in Karachi confirmed on Monday.

"We have received the release orders for Asif Zardari," jail official Amanullah Khan said. "He is a free man now," he added. Immediately after his release, Mr Zardari told Dawn that he was elated on his release.

"By the grace of Allah, I am very happy on my release and would like to go home," he said. "My release is a victory for democracy, for PPP and for the people of Pakistan." Benazir Bhutto, who spoke to various television networks from Dubai, said her husband had faced the confinement with courage.

Earlier, a three-member Supreme Court bench in Islamabad comprising Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Shakirullah Jan issued the release orders. "Bail is allowed subject to furnishing of surety bonds of Rs1 million before the trial court," said the short order.

"The situation reflects that Zardari was arrested in the BMW reference after the National Accountability Bureau realized that he had been bailed out in other corruption references," the chief justice observed during the hearing.

In the evening, the judge of an accountability court in Rawalpindi, Muhammad Aslam Khan, issued release orders of Mr Zardari after accepting surety bond of Rs1 million submitted by PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf. Lawyers Senator Farooq Naek and Mr Abubakr Zardari had accompanied Mr Ashraf.

The bail orders were brought to the accountability court by a special messenger of the Supreme Court. The orders were received by the accountability court reader, who then informed the judge at his residence about it. The judge asked his staff to complete the documentation and bring it to his residence along with the surety bond where he signed the release orders at around 6:15pm.

A large number of PPP leaders and workers were present in the court room and as soon as the Chief Justice announced the orders, they rushed outside, cheering and congratulating each other.

Mr Zardari, who was admitted to the Dr Ziauddin Hospital Karachi for treatment of spondylitis, has been facing charges in many corruption, criminal and corporate cases.

In the Rawalpindi accountability court, the references pending against him are the Assets cases, Polo Ground case, Ursus Tractors case, SGS pre-shipment inspection case, ARY Gold case, Cotecna reference and the BMW car import case.

The LHC, Rawalpindi Bench, has already acquitted Mr Zardari in the Pakistan Steel Mills case in which he had been awarded seven years imprisonment. He was also awarded sentence in the SGS case but that too was set aside by the Supreme Court.

A former PPP senator, Mr Zardari has been facing nine criminal cases, the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case, Justice Nizam murder case, Container case, Alam Baloch murder case, Sajjad Hussain murder case, two suicide cases, the KESC case and the Narcotics case.

In the last reference he got bail, Mr Zardari has been accused of importing a 1993 model bullet-proof BMW from Sweden in the name of a student to evade customs duty worth millions of rupees during the second term of Benazir Bhutto government. The duties evaded are estimated at Rs5.5 million.

The panel of defence lawyers comprised Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mr Naek and Dr Babar Awan. Mr Ahsan while pleading before the bench said that BMW was a targeted reference against Mr Zardari as his name was never mentioned in any of the documents relating to the import. He was arrested the moment he was bailed out in the last case on Dec 15, 2001.

He said five prosecution witnesses - car-owner Anees Ahmed, Deputy Customs Collector Hasan Raza, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Jahangir, Head Constable Abdul Majeed and Excise and Taxation Officer Masood Hassan - were never implicated as co-accused though they all were involved in the case.

Mr Ahsan said the BMW was imported in 1995 and transferred to a workshop in Islamabad in 1999. An open-ended warrant was issued for Mr Zardari and he was arrested on Dec 15, 2001, aimed at keeping him behind bars, he said. He was indicted in the case in June 2002, he added.

Advocate Ibrahim Satti, representing the NAB, argued that Mr Zardari's bail petition should be remanded back to the Lahore High Court as he (Mr Zardari) had come directly to the Supreme Court without challenging the LHC's orders of dismissing his petition on technical grounds.

During the hearing, NAB Deputy Prosecutor-General Abdul Baseer Qureshi was present in the court as were PPP leaders Farhartullah Babar, Ehsanul Haq Piracha, Fehmida Mirza, Qasim Zia, etc.

AFP adds: Dispelling impression that Mr Zardari's release was outcome of some agreement with the government, PPP's senior vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said: "The party's agenda is the democratization of the country's policy ... it cannot, indeed will not, enter into any understanding with the regime."

Mr Aitzaz Ahsan said Mr Zardari should have been set free long ago. "It is redressal of injustice which was long overdue," he said, adding "Zardari has already been granted bail in 11 cases while acquitted in three cases."