Daily Times

An accountability court in Islamabad indicted former president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, and declared former prime minister Nawaz Sharif an absconder in the Toshakhana reference on Wednesday.

Accused Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed were also indicted. All the four accused, including former president Zardari and former premier Gillani, pleaded not guilty.

Former premier Sharif was declared a proclaimed offender by Judge Syed Asghar Ali after his case was separated from the other accused. The court further sought details of Sharif’s movable and immovable properties, and asked them to be presented in court within seven days. The process of his arrest and subsequent presentation in court was also asked to be clarified. Judge Asghar Ali further warned that the former premier’s properties will be frozen if he failed to appear before the court.

Objecting to the indictment, former prime minister Gilani came on to the rostrum himself to present his stance. He said he never did anything against the rules. “Only a summary that came according to the law was approved. Had the summary been wrong, it would not have been moved,” he maintained.

The accountability court judge responded that action will be taken as per the law. “We are not yet discussing the merits of the case, or how the summary came and was approved. You have to tell this to the court during the trial,” he added.

The former prime minister further argued that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) made the reference without looking at the rules of business. The court adjourned the hearing till September 24 after ordering NAB to present its witnesses – Waqar-ul-Hassan Shah, Zubair Siddiqui and Imran Zafar – at the hearing.

Farooq Naek, the counsel of President Asif Ali Zardari said that there were hearing of three cases against President Zardari and in one, Toshakhana case, the charge was framed against his client. The other two cases are called Park lane case and fake account case. In these both cases the NAB wanted to file supplementary references which he opposed. He said that NAB has no authority to file supplementary reference.

Separately, an accountability court deferred on Wednesday the indictment of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in the mega money laundering reference till September 17. The former president and his sister appeared before the court where Judge Azam Khan heard the case.

Meanwhile, Asif Ali Zardari while appealing to the court to dismiss the mega money laundering case requested for the supplementary reference to also be dismissed and he be acquitted. Judge Azam Khan questioned if the lawyer was ready to argue the petition, in response to which the lawyer asked the court to extend the date for argument to September 17. The request was granted, and the hearing adjourned till the said date.

Earlier in the hearing, the former president’s counsel, Farooq H Naek, had blamed the administration of incompetence stating that Mustafa Zulqarnain and other lawyers were not being allowed to enter the court.

The court also heard the Park Lane supplementary reference. Indictment in the case was also postponed till September 17. Earlier this month, on September 1, an accountability court had set September 9 for indicting former president Asif Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and other accused in the mega money laundering reference. The court also granted former president and his sister a day’s exemption from attendance. The hearing of the case was adjourned due to non-availability of judge Azam Khan.