Court acquits Asif Ali Zardari in SGS, Cotecna cases

Zardari had filed acquittal applications in the two pending corruption references, SGS and Cotecna, against him.

Islamabad: An Accountability Court on Tuesday acquitted former president and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in SGS and Cotecna references involving kickbacks and commissions.
Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir had reserved verdict on November 11 in two corruption references against the former president.
Zardari had filed acquittal applications in the two pending corruption references, SGS and Cotecna, against him.
The name of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was removed from the references after her assassination while another accused former CBR chairman AR Siddiqui was acquitted over lack of evidences.
Zardari had been facing five corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 1997-98.
He got a clean chit in three while two corruption references, pertaining to the award of pre-shipment contracts, namely SGS and Contecna were still pending.
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• Pakistan