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ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed petitions in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking to withdraw appeals against the acquittal of former president Asif Ali Zardari by an accountability court in the at least 4 references.
Earlier in June this year, NAB’s Additional Prosecutor General Jahanzeb Khan Bharwana had hinted at withdrawing the appeals against Asif Zardari, saying he had requested the Court to either dispose of the appeal or adjourn the hearing till the retrieval of original record, sought its permission to reconstruct the record.
It is pertinent to mention here that the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) empowers the NAB prosecutor general to withdraw a case from any court at any stage.
It may be recalled here that the original record in the assets reference against the former president had reportedly gone missing from the custody of an accountability court, besides the original case record of two other references — SGS and Cotecna — in which he had also been acquitted.
In petitions filed today, NAB took the plea that further prosecution of appeals would prove to be a futile exercise since photocopies of documents against Asif Zardari were hardly on record.
NAB also stated that the available documentary proofs in these referenes didn’t come up to the criteria set up by relevant laws of evidences.
