ISLAMABAD, May 18: PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was on Friday declared proclaimed offender for her failure to appear in the accountability court in connection with the SGS case.

This is the second time when an accountability court has declared the former prime minister proclaimed offender for the same offence. Earlier, Benazir Bhutto was also sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment on the same charge by another accountability court.

The SGS case was remanded to the accountability court by a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court for a retrial. Ms Bhutto and spouse Asif Ali Zardari are facing the charge of awarding a preshipment inspection contract to the SGS, a Swiss company, in consideration of 6 per cent commission of the total amount received by the company from the government of Pakistan.

The commission, according to the prosecution, was paid to an offshore company, Bomer Finance Inc., allegedly owned by Asif Zardari while Jens Schlegelmilch acted as his fiduciary agent. The ultimate beneficiaries of the commission were Asif Zardari and Benazir Bhutto, the prosecution alleged.

On Friday, while separating the case of Asif Zardari and former Central Board of Revenue chairman A.R. Siddiqui from the main reference in the SGS case, the court declared the nine co-accused in the reference as POs and adjourned the hearing to May 30.

In addition to Jens Schlegelmilch, the other eight directors of the Swiss firm are: Colin Robey, then vice-president; Oliver De Breakeleer, then managing director; Michael Lysewycs, executive manager; Michael Worrow, operation manager; David Murray, operation manager; William Boyd, technical manager; R. Rijken, manager; and Andrea Ralph, manager.

The court, which had earlier issued arrest warrants against the former CBR chairman because of his constant absence, on Friday directed the co-accused to submit an undertaking with a bank guarantee of Rs1 million to ensure his appearance before the court.

Lawyers Tariq Aziz and Raheel Malik represented the National Accountability Bureau before Judge Mansoor Ali Khan and informed the court that proceedings under section 87 of the Criminal Procedure Code had already been completed which empowered the court to issue the proclamation order.

Earlier the process server, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Riyasat Ali of Boat Basin Police Station, informed the court that he had affixed the court’s proclamation orders at the Bilawal House, the Karachi residence of Benazir Bhutto and at other important public places.