ISLAMABAD, March 9: The district and sessions judge, Islamabad, on Thursday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari in the assets declaration case.

It is for the fourth time that the same court has issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the PPP chairperson and her husband in this case.

The case against the PPP leaders is being tried on a petition filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in which it had claimed that Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari had made false assets declaration before the Election Commission of Pakistan during the general elections in 1993.

The court also ordered the authorities concerned to serve notices on the accused through the Interpol.

NAB, in its petition, said Ms Bhutto and her husband had immense wealth and property in foreign countries which they had earned through corrupt practices.

“It is on this count that they suppressed the fact of ownership of these properties abroad in their declaration of assets before Election Commission of Pakistan,” a lawyer of NAB said in the court.

He said although the accused had not mentioned about their properties while declaring their assets before the CEC, they had admitted ownership of these properties before the Swiss court.

Meanwhile, the PPP denounced the arrest warrants of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari and termed it an abuse of the judicial process by the Musharraf regime.

In a statement on Friday, Senator Babar Awan said Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari had declared their assets before the returning officers Larkana and Nawabshah, respectively, in 1993 and no objection was raised by anyone at that time.

“If Ms Bhutto has mis-declared assets before the chief election commissioner (CEC) as is being alleged then it is for the CEC to give notice to her and seek her comments,” he said.

He said the case was not only time-barred but also beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court moved by the bureau. The politically-motivated NAB was pursuing it for political propaganda and to harass the PPP leadership, he said.

Mr Awan said NAB was ignoring cases of mega corruption but chasing Benazir Bhutto because she had refused to submit to the dictatorial demands of the regime.

He asked the bureau to inform people as to what action it had taken in Steel Mills privatisation case, sugar price scandal, Tawana Pakistan Project and in the purchase of defective Chinese locomotives.