A Pakistani prosecutor said on Tuesday he wanted corruption cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif taken up by the courts in a move Sharif's party said was politically motivated as the presidential race grew increasingly testy. Asif Ali Zardari, head of the main ruling party and widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, is expected to easily capture enough lawmakers' votes on Saturday to be elected as president. Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, a top prosecutor with the National Accountability Bureau, said he had asked a court to review an Aug. 21 decision to put off indefinitely a hearing into three corruption accusations against Sharif. “We have asked the court to review its decision ... and fix a date for the hearing,” the prosecutor, Zulfiqar Bhutta, said. He denied there was any political motive for his request saying he wanted the court to proceed according to the law. The cases stretch back years, and their accusations against Sharif include money laundering, loan defaults and accumulation of wealth beyond his known sources of income. “It appears to be aimed at using the accountability courts against Nawaz Sharif,” said the opposition leader's lawyer, Khwaja Haris. “It appears to be used for political ends.” Sharif aide Ahsan Iqbal said pursuing the cases smacked of “political bankruptcy.” “The political process must show maturity and, particularly, the government must realize that these are tried, tested and failed tactics of the past,” he told Dawn Television. Asked about the cases, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said Zardari's party “will not pursue the politics of revenge.” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, also of Zardari's party, said the accountability bureau, which the new government has vowed to reform, “has no value.” Sharif, ousted as prime minister by then army chief Pervez Musharraf in 1999 coup, returned from exile in October and led his party in a February election in which it came second to the party of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Sharif pulled his party out of a coalition with Bhutto's party last week, compounding investors' worries about political turmoil that has triggered a slide in Pakistan's financial markets. Bhutto and Sharif were bitter rivals in the 1990s, when both served two terms as prime minister, and the split in the coalition has raised fears of a return to the days of fierce competition between the two parties.
