PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, while discussing his recent acquittal in the final corruption reference pending against him in the National Accountability Bureau, said on Friday that it wasn't the first time he had won a "politically motivated case" against him.

While addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Zardari said, "Before these cases, there is the long saga of the 12 cases filed against me in [former president] Ghulam Ishaq Khan's time. Those were also based on trumped up charges and I won all of them while still in jail."

"But I do not want to bother people with those stories at the moment," he said, "All I want to say is that this is not the first time this is happening to me and there have been politically motivated cases against us before."

"I remember, when the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance was quashed in Karachi by Justice Kazi and, as I was walking out [of jail], the superintendent [of the jail] said, 'What will you achieve by packing up your things — we both know you have to return.' I told him I will still fulfill the formality of walking out," Zardari said.

"As I was walking out of the jail premises, they were waiting for me," he recounted. "They told me I was being arrested in the Murtaza Bhutto [murder] case."

"I remember, at the time, Bibi [Benazir Bhutto] had said 'They have killed a Bhutto to get a Bhutto.' It proved true as her government was toppled because of the Murtaza Bhutto case," he said, talking about the 1996 killing of Benazir Bhutto's brother.

A sessions court had acquitted 18 policemen in 2009 for their involvement in the 'encounter' that led to Murtaza's death.

"A long tale is attached to each of these 14 politically motivated cases. There are 400 to 500 court appearances that we went through to get these verdicts. It is very easy for people to say that I won them through mukmukaa (under the table deals), but there has been a real struggle behind each of them."

"I remember, during the hearings, even the Supreme Court had said that bias is apparent in these cases," he recalled.

"They tried every possible means to stall these cases, but I am thankful to the Almighty that I am sitting here today in front of you," he said.

The final reference

The final case against the former president was based on a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during former president Pervez Musharraf's era for allegedly acquiring assets through illegal means in Pakistan and abroad.

The reference was filed before an accountability court in 2001, but was closed in 2007 under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) issued by the government of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.

However, the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the NRO case on December 2009, had ordered the revival of all cases closed under the ordinance. By then, however, Zardari had been sworn in as president and therefore enjoyed immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution.

Zardari faced a total of six corruption references: apart from the assets reference, the former president was also implicated in the SGS, Cotecna, Polo Ground, Ursus Tractors and ARY Gold corruption references.

NAB re-opened these references once Zardari had completed his term office, but the former president had already been acquitted in five of the six references after a re-trial before an accountability court.

The request for Zardari's acquittal from the final reference, submitted by his counsel and PPP leader Farooq H. Naek, was recently accepted by Justice Khalid Mahmood Ranjha, who ruled that the reference lacked a legal basis.