By IANS,
London : Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has assets of $1.5 billion spread around the world, according to the country’s main anti-corruption body, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The National Accountability Bureau said Zardari’s riches, including properties in America, Britain and Spain, were “beyond his means”.
His British portfolio is alleged to include the luxurious Rockwood House, a mansion set on a 355-acre estate in Surrey, southeast England.
The Times quoted investigators as saying most of Zardari’s fortune was made in kickbacks and commission when his late wife Benazir Bhutto was twice prime minister in the 1990s.
The investigators’ report has been given to the Supreme Court as it deliberates a proposed amnesty for the country’s political leaders that was brokered by former President Pervez Musharraf and has now lapsed.
Six cases of kickbacks and misuse of power against Zardari were dropped under the amnesty agreement.
However, a spokesman for the President said: “Reports of $1.5 billion dollars of national and foreign assets allegedly belonging to President Zardari are no more than regurgitation of a decade-old unproven politically motivated allegations.”