LAHORE, Nov 10: The prosecution in a drug trafficking case against ex-senator Asif Ali Zardari is stated to have turned down the proposal for early hearing of an application seeking his premature acquittal in the case.
A senior official in the Punjab Advocate General’s office, sources told Dawn, had proposed on Nov 6 to the prosecution to move an application in the district judge’s court, requesting the judge to hold the proceedings of the case ahead of the schedule to initiate arguments. The case is already fixed for Nov 16 by the court in its last hearing.
But the prosecution refused to accept the proposal, saying the “functioning of the two public prosecutors appointed in this case is not governed by the provincial law department as they had been appointed by the federal government”. “Unless the prosecution was instructed by the federal government to request for early hearing or to withdraw the case, the prosecutors could not move ahead (in this matter),” the advocate general’s office was told.
The sources claimed that the NAB authorities in Islamabad were also consulted on this particular proposal who also differed with the idea, insisting the case should be allowed to come up for its scheduled hearing on Nov 16.
Moreover, it was also made clear by the NAB authorities to the prosecution that no instruction to withdraw the case was given as yet. The NAB, the sources added, was consulted for a go-ahead on the said proposal because the former Ehtesab Bureau had substantially contributed to the case by providing documentary evidence against the accused. The documentary evidence mainly comprised over 1,000 pages of an inquiry conducted by the London Bow Street Court. The inquiry, the prosecution says, listed the assets, including Surrey Palace, acquired by both former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Zardari in the UK during the second tenure of the PPP in power.
The documents were provided to Pakistan on a request by EB chairman Mian Saifur Rehman in August 2000.
The documents were placed before the trial court as “evidence” against Zardari in September 2001 to prove that Surrey Palace and other assets had been acquired by the accused from drug money. Later on the documents were made part of a NAB reference filed against Zardari before the Attock Accountability Court. Moreover, the prosecution had already moved an application before the court to tender the statement of a prosecution witness, Mushtaq Prince, recorded by the deputy secretary of former Ehtesab Bureau, Khalid Aziz, in the US.
When contacted, defence counsel Latif Khan Khosa told Dawn he had insisted for early hearing of the case during the proceedings of a petition filed in the LHC by the prosecution for the cancellation of Zardari’s bail in this case last week.
The LHC had asked the prosecution to “update it on Nov 11 on the current government stance on the release of the accused”.
The counsel claimed that the prosecution could apply for early hearing of the case before the trial court under the direction of the provincial advocate general as the case was registered by the Lahore Police under Section 15 of the Control of Narcotics Act, 1997.
If the case had been registered by the ANF, it would have been a different story. “In that eventuality, the federal government’s permission for moving an application for early hearing would have become mandatory,” Khosa said.