RAWALPINDI, Jan 30: All corruption charges against former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto were dropped here on Wednesday.

An accountability court deleted her name from two cases and put off the hearing in acquittal pleas of the co-accused till Feb 20.

Court No 3 Judge Saghir Ahmed Qadiri ordered the deletion of the name of the late PPP leader from the list of accused in the reference relating to Swiss company Cotecna. According to law, all charges are dropped if an accused dies.

The case which had earlier been adjourned sine die was taken up again after the accused sought their acquittal under the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The judge put off the hearing in the BMW reference against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari till Feb 20.

Court No 4 Judge Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood deleted the name of Ms Bhutto from the list of accused in the Ursus tractor case.

The case has been pending since the judge ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce original documents in place of photocopies which had been submitted.

The judge put off hearing in the acquittal pleas of Asif Zardari and Rehman Malik in the polo ground and unlawful assets cases and two cases of misappropriation of money.

Court No 2 Judge Chaudhry Mohammad Younas put off hearing on petitions of Asif Zardari and other co-accused in the ARY Gold case and the case relating to another Swiss company, SGS.

The court had deleted Ms Bhutto’s name in cases on Jan 21.

Court No 1 Judge Mohammad Hanif Khan had dropped the charges against Ms Bhutto in a reference of illegal assets on Jan 15.

The cases were prepared by the Ehtesab Bureau set up by the Nawaz Sharif government in 1997 and 1998.

The acquittal petitions have been moved in October last year after the promulgation of the NRO.

Hearing a constitutional petition against the ordinance, on October 12 deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had linked any benefit under the NRO with the final ruling of the Supreme Court.