Zardari cleared in last graft case

By OUR PAKISTAN CORRESPONDENT

Islamabad, March 14: PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who may become Pakistan Prime Minister in a few months’ time, has been cleared in all corruption and abuse of power cases as a court on Friday acquitted him in the BMW case.

Mr Zardari was accused of illegally importing a BMW car in the mid-1990s when his late wife Benazir Bhutto was in power.

A special accountability court in Rawalpindi, near here, acquitted Mr Zardari in the BMW case. Judge Saghir Ahmed Qadri of the special accountability court announced the acquittal.

An application was filed under Section 265-K as the reference case did not fall under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), but Mr Zardari’s counsel Farooq Naik appealed that due to lack of evidence, the reference stood irrelevant, and therefore, Mr Zardari should be acquitted.

President Pervez Musharraf promulgated the NRO as part of a deal with the PPP in 2007. The ordinance was aimed at withdrawing political cases against rivals.

The acquittal removes the final possible hurdle to Mr Zardari to stand for Prime Minister.

"By the grace of God he has been honourably acquitted. I am very happy today that after a struggle of 11 years the state has failed to prove any cases against Asif Ali Zardari," Mr Naik told reporters. "These are all politically motivated cases. After the long darkness in the tunnel, a light has finally come and we hope that in the future that there will be no politics of revenge," he said.