The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will resume hearing of appeal of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against trial court's verdict for acquitting the PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in two references pertaining to polo ground and Ursus tractors.
A divisional bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb will hear the NAB appeal wherein the IHC bench had already sought the references record against Zardari in which the accused had been acquitted.
The NAB had stated in its appeal that the trial court had no powers to acquit the accused in corruption case. The anti-graft body had challenged the acquittal of Zardari by the accountability court in two references in 2014. The last hearing on NAB's appeal was held on April 21, 2016.
The NAB had moved the IHC through its prosecutor general and challenged the AC decision in which it had acquitted Zardari in two corruption references including polo ground and Ursus tractors corruption references. In the application, the NAB had cited Zardari as respondent and pleaded the court to declare the said verdict of AC as null and void. The NAB prosecutor had also requested the court to permit them to produce witnesses and evidences against Zardari before the court in this matter.
Accountability Court, Islamabad, had acquitted former President Asif Ali Zardari in two corruption cases as the NAB failed to give any proof and produce any witness. The court verdict says the accused had not been proven guilty so far. It further stated that evidence against the former president was not sufficient for further proceedings.
The counsel for the former president had contended before the court that the main accused in these references had already been acquitted, so a co-accused could not be tried and should be acquitted under the NAB Ordinance, 1999.
The NAB requested the High Court to declare the decision of the trial court null and void, submitting that it had given the decision in haste without assessing the gravity of the offence of the accused.
The NAB prosecutor contended that the court's decision was based on presumptions and conjectures which had no value in the eyes of the law. Therefore, he prayed to the court to set aside the said judgement of the AC which exonerated former President Asif Ali Zardari from the charges of corruption in these two references.