By IRNA
Rawalpindi : An Accountability Court in Pakistan on Wednesday dropped corruption charges against the widower of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, paving the way for his becoming member of parliament, his lawyer said.
The court in Rawalpindi ordered restoration of worldwide assets and bank accounts of Asif Ali Zardari, which were confiscated in 2006 in different corruption cases.
The charges were withdrawn on the basis of National Reconciliation Ordinance issued by President Musharraf last year after he and Benazir Bhutto held extensive reconciliation talks.
The ordinance had also paved the way for the return of Benazir Bhutto from 8-year exile.
Analysts say that Zardari is now eligible to contest election for parliamentary seat.
Zardari could not contest election in the February 18
parliamentary elections but he can now join the race in the bye-election.
Accountability court judge Khalid Mehmood ordered the departments concerned to restore Mr Zardari’s confiscated assets.
“Governments have failed to prove any case against late Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari in 11 years,” Zardari’s lawyer Farooq A.
Naik told reporters outside the court.
The government-run National Accountability Bureau had filed references in the Accountability Court and had charged that Mr Zardari had accumulated property, assets and bank accounts through corruption in “collusive arrangement” with his wife, assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and state functionaries during her tenure in government.
The accountability court was provided a detailed list of the overseas assets, which NAB said it had unearthed successfully.
The court had also issued a ‘perpetual warrant’ for the arrest of Mr Zardari while the Interpol had issued a ‘Red Notice’ against the couple when they were in exile.
Meanwhile, the NAB had also issued a list of properties, which it said belonged to Mr Zardari, that included the 355-acre Rockwood Surrey Palace in London and a flat at the Queensgate Terrace and two houses at Hammersmith Road, Wilton Crescent in Kingston, and in Hampstead.
The court had also ordered the freezing of Mr Zardari’s properties in Belgium, France and the United States as well as his numerous foreign bank accounts and offshore companies.