Non-bailable warrants issued for Bhutto' husband

Islamabad, July 19: A lower court has issued non-bailable arrest warrants for former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari in a case pertaining to declaration of their assets.

The Dawn newspaper said today Islamabad District and Sessions Judge Rafiuz Zaman yesterday directed Ms Bhutto and her husband to appear in the court on September 7.

A National Accountability Bureau official said the Pakistan People's Party leaders were accused of filing false assets declaration before the Election Commission in 1993.

As they were absent from the proceedings, the court, after hearing NAB senior prosecutor Abdul Baseer Qureshi, ordered issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for both of them.

The court ordered the authorities concerned to serve the notices through Interpol to Ms Bhutto, who is living in London in exile.

The NAB in its petition said that Ms Bhutto and her husband had gathered immense wealth and property in foreign countries earned through ''illegal and corrupt means''.

The official said the accused had admitted the ownership of the properties in a Swiss court.

Meanwhile, Ms Bhutto's PPP termed the issuance of the warrants an abuse of the judicial process by President Musharraf's regime.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement that Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari had declared their assets before the returning officers in Larkana and Nawabshah, respectively, in 1993 and no objection was raised at that time.

''If Ms Bhutto has misdeclared assets before the Election Commission, then it is for the Chief Election Commissioner to give notice to her and not for the NAB,'' he said.

UNI