By IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has withdrawn from a $150 million corruption case against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and two others in a Swiss court.
This marks a significant move that could influence the on-again-off-again political alignment between Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf in time for the general elections due later this year.
NAB officials confirmed the withdrawal of the case against Bhutto, former Federal Investigation Agency director general Rehman Malik and S. Jaffari, because of lack of evidence, the NNI news agency reported Thursday.
The cases relate to the UN food-for-oil deals with the Saddam Hussain regime in Iraq. NAB said Bhutto was not prime minister of Pakistan when the company was allegedly involved in the scam, and Pakistan had no link with the money accumulated through it.
Bhutto had given strong indications that the alliance was on last month, but changed her stance after Musharraf continued to debar her from returning home. She said she would not accept an arrangement with Musharraf as long as he continued to be army chief.
Bhutto has consistently held that the cases before the Swiss courts, like all others, were "politically motivated" and were instituted by her rival, now turned ally, Nawaz Sharif.
Both Bhutto and Sharif have had two incomplete terms each ruling Pakistan.
Lawyers hired from Spain filed an application in the Swiss court stating that NAB no longer wished to be a party to the case. The court accepted the application, the sources said.
However, they added that the court would still continue with the case.
A NAB team under former bureau deputy chairman Hasan Wasim Afzal spent millions of dollars investigating the case.