Zardari ordered to appear in court on October 29

Pakistan's former President Asif Ali Zardari was today summoned by a court to appear before it on October 29 in relation to five corruption cases against him which were re-opened last week, compounding his legal woes.

Zardari, 58, failed to submit a response in accordance with the court's earlier order, upon which the bench took a recess to wait for his response.

Despite earlier notices from the court, officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which is probing charges against Zardari, also failed to turn up for today's hearing.

Meanwhile, newly appointed NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry took notice of the absence of officials from the hearing and issued instructions to ensure the implementation of the court's order. He directed the Bureau's prosecutor to appear for the hearing.

The court was also informed that Zardari had not complied with its earlier order, after which the bench issued another summons for him to appear on October 29.

Taking suo motu notice, the accountability court's judge Bashir Ahmed had reopened five references against the former president.

Giving details of the cases, Express Tribune said that in July 2011, pronouncing its verdict in the 13-year-old graft case - commonly known as the SGS reference - an accountability court had absolved all accused, except Zardari.

In the SGS reference filed in 1997, it was alleged that then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Zardari had received kickbacks in a pre-shipment contract between the Pakistani government and SGS.

They were accused of receiving kickbacks through offshore bank accounts of Schlegelmilch.