RAWALPINDI: An accountability court in Rawalpindi accepting request of former president and co-chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari regarding his illness adjourned hearing of an assets reference on Tuesday to May 13.
The former president had to appear before the court today in recently re-opened the assets reference .
This is the second time that Zardari has failed to appear before the Rawalpindi accountability court since the five-year-old reference was reopened last month.
During the last hearing on April 27, his counsel Senator Farooq H. Naek pleaded that the accused had not yet received any summons while he had appeared before the court seeing the news in the press.
Subsequently, the court directed to issue summons again to the accused to appear in person before the court on May 5.
The request was put forward by for his counsel exemption from appearance citing medical reasons.
In response, Justice Khalid Mehmood Ranjha adjourned the hearing of the case till May 13.
Besides this reference, Zardari is also named in SGS and Contecna references.
Talking to media outside the court premises, Naek said he had submitted a request along with Zardari’s medical report before the court seeking exemption for the former president from appearing for today’s hearing since he had not been feeling well.
According to the reference, Zardari and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto are accused of illegally acquiring their assets. The case was also tried in a Swiss court.
Senator Naek had earlier said that the government had reopened the case on the request of the National Accountability Bureau. The reference against the former president was closed in 2010.
