Zardari acquitted in drug trafficking case

A Pakistani court on Monday acquitted ruling Pakistan People's Party chairman Asif Ali Zardari in a decade-old case linking him to drug trafficking, saying there was no 'substantial evidence' against him.

This was the last of numerous cases filed against Zardari, 51, in the 1990s after the dismissal of the PPP government led by his slain wife Benazir Bhutto.

Additional Sessions Judge Ejaz Hussain Awan acquitted Zardari, who took over PPP leadership after Bhutto was killed in an attack on her rally in December, after the public prosecutor requested that the charges be dropped, as the government had found no substantial evidence.

Zardari's counsel Latif Khosa said the case was designed to victimise his client and there was no evidence against him.

The judge agreed with the arguments and acquitted Zardari whose slogan-shouting supporters were present outside the court in large numbers.

After the verdict, Khosa told media persons that the case was based on falsehood and no witnesses had made statements against Zardari.

Zardari had been charged with providing 'aid, assistance, facilitation, abetment and shelter' to six persons allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

The prosecution had claimed that he received a 'share' in the narcotics business from persons who sent a major drug consignment to Europe and India in 1995 and 1996. The PPP leader had maintained that he had been framed.

All graft charges filed against Zardari in Pakistan and abroad have been scrapped in line with the controversial ordinance issued by President Pervez Musharraf last year to grant amnesty to PPP leaders.

Zardari was acquitted by the Sindh High Court last month of involvement in the murder of Murtaza Bhutto, brother of his wife.