DIPY:
ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a non-bailable warrant for the arrest of
opposition leader Ms Benazir Bhutto, currently living in London, officials said. Ms Benazir Bhutto
faces trial along with four others, including her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari, in a corruption
case related to her 1993-96 stint as Prime Minister.
The accused have been charged by the official accountability bureau with receiving kickbacks
from the import of some 8,000 tractors from Poland during Bhutto's government. The warrant was
issued in Rawalpindi, by a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court, comprising judges
Ehsan-ul-Haq Choudhry and Ghulam Mehmud Qureshi.
Ms Benazir was convicted in absentia in April, alongwith her spouse, in another corruption case.
Both were sentenced to five years in jail, fined 8.6 million dollars and barred from holding public
office. The court found them guilty of receiving millions of dollars in commissions on a 1994
pre-shipment trade cargo inspection contract to a Swiss firm.
The couple said the case was politically motivated and accused the government of Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif of victimising them. Their appeals are pending in the country's Supreme Court. (AFP) |
