ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: An accountability court (AC) on Thursday declared that it had the jurisdiction to proceed with the SGS pre-shipment inspection award reference against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari.
The defence counsel, Farooq Naek, representing the jailed PPP leader, had questioned the competency of the court during the last proceedings on the grounds that the case was not pending before Ehtesaab bench at the time of its transfer to the accountability court as required under National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance 1999.
Judge Mansoor Ali Khan of the Accountability Court No II also suggested to the prosecutor-general, Raja Bashir, to inquire from the law ministry about the procedure involved in summoning of respondents, including Benazir Bhutto, who was living abroad.
Other respondents in the case, include AR Siddiqui, former chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Jens Schlegelmilch of Switzerland, Colin Robey, the then vice-president SGS, Oliver de Breakeleer, the then managing director, and managers Michael Warrow, David Murray, R Rijken and Andrea Ralp.
The prosecutor-general had asked the court to issue summons to the respondents under the British and Swiss laws as all the respondents were either living in the UK or belonged to Switzerland. Besides there was no provisions under the Pakistani law to issue summons against the persons, living abroad. However, Farooq Naek had objected to it, saying the British and Swiss laws were not applicable in the case as these were procedural laws. Neither the government of Pakistan nor the Parliament had passed any legislation to make these laws applicable in Pakistan.
On the contrary, he said, section 93(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provided a procedure where summons could be issued against persons living outside the country through a court, notified in that country by the Pakistan government. He said Pakistan’s embassies or any officer of that embassy could be notified as a court, as it was in practice under Muslim Family laws for the confirmation of divorce or for the registration of documents under the regulation act.
The court also asked the process server, who reported to the court earlier that Benazir Bhutto had gone abroad, to appear again on November 14.
During the proceedings, when the prosecution stated the proclamation should be issued in the print media both locally and internationally against the respondents, the defence again objected to it saying any such exercise would be creating disrepute to his clients.
Led by former judge Malik Qayyum, an Ehtesab bench, had awarded five years imprisonment to Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari with a fine of $8.6 million in addition to disqualification as a member of the Parliament. The order was announced on April 15, 1999.
Both Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto were convicted for awarding pre-shipment inspection contract to M/s SGS in consideration of six per cent commission of total amount received by the company from the government of Pakistan. The commission was paid to offshore company, Bomer Finance Inc. allegedly owned by Asif Ali Zardari, while Jens Schlegelmilch acted as his agent.
The ultimate beneficiaries of these commissions were Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Bhutto, the prosecution had alleged.