ISLAMABAD: An accountability court resumed on Monday proceedings in corruption references against former president Asif Ali Zardari.

Judge Mohammad Bashir was surprised to note that the reference about movable and immovable assets of Mr Zardari and in which he is the sole accused has not been transferred to his court.

The prosecution has alleged that Mr Zardari had purchased a number of properties in the name of his frontmen and deposited the money of kickbacks through them in Swiss banks.

The assets’ reference and other corruption references against Mr Zardari had been closed after the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance by former president Pervez Musharraf.

On Monday, the accountability court resumed proceedings in the reference in which Mr Zardari has been accused of receiving six per cent of the $131 million pre-shipment inspection contract awarded to Cotecna, a Swiss company.

Other references against Mr Zardari alleged that he received kickbacks from Société Générale de Surveillance, a pre-shipment inspection company, granted licence to ARY Gold which caused a huge loss to the government, received illegal gratification and undue pecuniary advantage in the form of commission in the purchase of Ursus tractors under the Awami Tractor Scheme.

These references stood revived after the Supreme Court declared the NRO void ab initio in December 2009.

The co-accused in all these references were acquitted by accountability courts of Rawalpindi in 2011 and 2012.

Since Mr Zardari enjoyed immunity during his presidential tenure, his trial was deferred till the end of his term on Sept 8, 2013. The Supreme Court had directed that the assets’ reference be reopened after the expiry of immunity.

But the reference could not be reopened because it had not been transferred to the accountability court of Islamabad from Rawalpindi.

The list about transfer of the cases from Rawalpindi to Islamabad was prepared at the NAB headquarters.

NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. But an official of NAB’s prosecution section told Dawn that the assets’ reference could not be transferred to Islamabad because the post of administrative judge of the Rawalpindi accountability court was lying vacant.

“It is an unintentional mistake and the assets’ reference will be transferred to Islamabad after Eid holidays,” he said.

The accountability court of Islamabad had issued a notice to the NAB prosecutor general on Sept 11 and directed him to appear before it on Oct 14. But when the judge resumed hearing on Monday, Prosecutor General K. K. Agha was not present in the court.

Then the court took a short break and directed the NAB prosecution to place the relevant record before it.

After the break, NAB additional deputy prosecutor general Chaudhry Mohammad Riaz appeared before the court and informed it that the notice could not be served on Mr Zardari because he was abroad.

He informed the court that immediately after receiving the notice, NAB conveyed it to its Sindh office and an official delivered the notice to the Bilawal House in Karachi.

The court put off the hearing till Oct 29.