Reprieve for Benazir in foreign accounts case

The two-judge bench suspended an earlier order passed by Justice Ehsanul Haq Chaudhry of the same high court on a petition filed by a local lawyer Javed Iqbal Jafri. It fixed March 10 for next hearing.

Chaudhry had last month restrained Bhutto from operating any bank accounts in foreign countries until a decision on the petition seeking repatriation of the money.

Ahsan argued that Jafri had nominated 23 parties as respondents but the judge had summoned only the formerpremier to appear in person. He also said the court in Lahore had no jurisdiction as the petitioner had said Bhutto lives in Karachi.

The Pakistan government says the Swiss authorities have frozen millions of dollars in bank accounts allegedly owned by the former prime minister and her family members.

The government claims the money was amassed by the Bhuttos through commissions and kickbacks on business deals.

Bhutto’s three-year government, in which her husband Asif Ali Zardari was investment minister, was dismissed in November 1996 on alleged charges of administrative corruption and misrule.

Addressing an anti-government rally in the industrial city of Faisalabad, Bhutto rejected the charges and accused Sharif of waging a character assassination campaign against her.

The rally drew thousands of her Pakistan People’s Party supporters. Bhutto led a big procession from the city’s railway station to the venue of her public meetings.

She bitterly criticized the government’s policies including leviesof new taxes and downsizing of staffs in banks and state-run organizations.

“Sharif has turned out to be the Gorbachev of Pakistan,” she said, referring to the former Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.