ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari withdrew on Wednesday an appeal he had filed to get the SGS reference against him quashed.

Mr Zardari had filed the appeal through his counsel Mohammad Arshad Tabrez in the Islamabad High Court in September this year.

An accountability court had rejected his petition for quashment of the reference on May 28 this year.

The National Accountability Bureau had accused Mr Zardari and other persons of awarding a pre-shipment inspection contract to the SGS in return for six per cent commission of the amount received by the company from the government of Pakistan.

In July 2011, an accountability court had acquitted the co-accused and on the basis of the acquittal, the former president had filed the petition for quashment of the reference.

The appeal of Mr Zardari was fixed before a division bench of the high court comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Athar Minallah when his counsel told the court that the accountability court had accepted his client’s application for rehearing under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Section 265-K empowers a judge to exonerate an accused from the proceedings if he finds no substantial evidence against him.

On May 28 this year, the accountability court had dismissed Mr Zardari’s application and the latter filed an application for rehearing. While the rehearing of the application was pending, Mr Zardari filed a petition before the IHC that was fixed for hearing on Wednesday.

After the accountability court accepted his application, he withdrew the petition.

In his acquittal application before the IHC, Mr Zardari had submitted that the accountability court acquitted co-accused A.R. Siddiqui on Jan 4, 2011, after finding no evidence against him, so he should also be acquitted.

Published in Dawn, November 6th , 2014