ISLAMABAD: With President Pervez Musharraf's fate hanging in balance, Pakistan government on Wednesday terminated graft cases against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari shortly after the apex court dismissed three petitions challenging a controversial order granting amnesty to PPP leaders in corruption cases.
The National Accountability Bureau, the anti-corruption body, terminated cases against Zardari and Rehman Malik, the security advisor of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, immediately after the Supreme Court gave its ruling on Wednesday morning.
NAB's deputy prosecutor general Zulfiqar Bhutta said the agency had initially given directions for the termination of cases after Musharraf issued the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in October last year.
But several anti-corruption courts had refused to stop hearing cases against Bhutto, Zardari and others after the NRO was challenged in the apex court, which also issued a stay on all benefits granted under the law, Bhutta said.
Following Wednesday's order from the Supreme Court, the cases were finally terminated, he said.
Bhutto's name was removed as an accused from cases being heard by anti-corruption courts following her assassination in December.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed dismissed petitions filed by Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif and an advocate challenging the constitutional validity of the NRO.
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