No threat to Zardari : NAB

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has said that there is no threat to President Asif Ali Zardari in view of the Supreme Court’s verdict declaring the controversial amnesty law as ‘Unconstitutional’.

NAB’s spokesperson said that Zardari’s chair was safe and secure, as he was not charged in any case in October 2007, when the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was promulgated.

The spokesman said that there is no record, which establishes the claims made by few lawyers that Zardari was convicted under Section 31-A of the NAO as a proclaimed offender, The News reports.

Section 31-A of the NAO deals with conviction in absentia, which, according to the latest Supreme Court judgment on the NRO, could not be automatically quashed if the accused stands acquitted in the main case in which he was declared an absconder.

It may be noted that senior advocate A K Dogar had claimed that Zardari was sentenced to three years imprisonment in the much reported BMW case in 2005.

Dogar said the BMW case was filed against Zardari on May 15, 2002, and charges were framed on June 15, 2002. He said Zardari allegedly misappropriated funds of about 14.206 million rupees.

“Zardari was sentenced in absentia. Under clause six of the NRO any conviction in absentia was declared as void ab initio.

Zardari, through his lawyers Farooq H Naek and Arshar Tabraiz pleaded before the Accountability Court that there was not much evidence against him in the BMW reference and so he should be acquitted under 365-k of the CrPC,” Dogar said. (ANI)