ISLAMABAD, 4 June 2006 — Islamabad’s District and Sessions Judge Rafiuzaman issued arrest warrants yesterday for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari for submitting false statements of assets to the country’s elections body, her lawyer said.
Although courts have previously issued such warrants for Benazir and Zardari, the latest one comes a day after Benazir met with her longtime political rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Dubai and called for a joint effort to remove President Pervez Musharraf from office.
Benazir, who twice was prime minister of Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s, has been living in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since 1999, when she left Pakistan to avoid arrest on graft charges.
The government has said Benazir and her husband concealed some of their foreign property and bank accounts while submitting statements of assets to the Election Commission after contesting the 1996 elections. Under Pakistani law, lawmakers are bound to declare their assets to the commission, and those found guilty of improperly declaring assets can be disqualified.
However, Benazir’s lawyer, Babar Awan, said the warrants were “politically motivated” and aimed at pressuring Bhutto, who wants to contest the 2007 elections to defeat the “dictatorship” of Musharraf. He said the arrest warrant orders Benazir and Zardari to appear before a court near Islamabad on July 2. It was not immediately clear whether the authorities would seek any help from the UAE to bring back Benazir, who will travel to London in July for another round of talks with Sharif.
