ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad accountability court on Tuesday acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in the SGS-Cotecna corruption references.

Mr Zardari was nominated in the SGS-Cotecna references in 1998. Following his acquittal, Mr Zardari now only faces the illegal assets corruption reference, which is pending before a Rawalpindi accountability court.

Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir acquitted Mr Zardari due to ‘weak’ evidence, because the entire case was based on photocopies.

Formed in 1998, the cases remained pending on the basis of photocopied records, and no original documents were produced before the court by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution.

On September 9, a former NAB deputy chairperson, Hassan Wasim Afzal, told the accountability court that he brought original records pertaining to the SGS and Cotecna corruption references from Switzerland and submitted them to the Ehtesab bench in Lahore, which consisted of Justice Ehsanul Haq Chaudhry and Justice Raja Mohammad Khursheed.

NAB additional deputy prosecutor general Chaudhry Riaz said that when he (the prosecutor) asked Mr Afzal about the records he had procured and in what specific corruption reference, he could not respond.

Mr Riaz said that Mr Afzal failed to point out particulars of the record he was discussing. He said that, if the original records are missing, the responsibility lay with the Lahore High Court (LHC) Ehtesab bench, which was the predecessor to the accountability courts.

Records from the Ehtesab bench were shifted to the accountability courts in Attock, then to the court in Rawalpindi and then to Islamabad.

Mr Riaz said the accountability court registrar wrote to the LHC registrar about the retrieval of the original record, but to not avail. NAB legal officials also tried to seek the original records from the Supreme Court, but the records were not found.

After hearing the arguments of Mr Zardari’s counsel and the NAB prosecution on November 11, the accountability court had reserved judgement.

SGS and Cotecna were corruption references pertaining to the award of pre-shipment contracts, with allegations that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Mr Zardari has received six per cent of the total amount as kickbacks. The former Central Board of Revenue (CBR) – now the Federal Board of Revenue – chairperson A.R. Siddiqui was co-accused in the cases.

On December 22 last year, the accountability court dismissed Mr Zardari’s application under CrPC Section 265-K for acquittal in the SGS and Cotecna references. The same court, on December 12, 2014, acquitted Mr Zardari in two corruption references – Ursus Tractors and ARY references – but NAB challenged the acquittal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), where the matter is currently pending for adjudication.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015