Charges still dog Benazir's husband

ISLAMABAD: Benazir Bhutto's husband, who took effective control of his slain wife's party yesterday, is a former cabinet minister who spent eight years in prison on corruption charges and is known as "Mr 10 Per Cent" for allegedly taking kickbacks.

In her will, read yesterday, Bhutto named Asif Ali Zardari as her successor as head of the Pakistan People's Party in case of her death. But Mr Zardari, who is viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis, appointed his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, as official chairman of the party that the 19-year-old's grandfather founded in 1967.

Mr Zardari, 54, who comes from a feudal family, shot to fame after his arranged marriage to Bhutto, who become prime minister for the first time in 1988, less than three months after giving birth to her son. Bhutto's husband is generally blamed for many of her political misfortunes, with her twice being forced out of the prime minister's office over allegations of corruption and misrule.

He was jailed for the first time in 1990 on charges ranging from murder to fraud when Bhutto's first government was dismissed. He was released in 1993 and acquitted of the charges, including the claim he tried to extort millions of dollars from a British man by attaching a bomb to his leg. Mr Zardari said the charges were politically motivated.

Mr Zardari became investment minister in Bhutto's second government, and was nicknamed "Mr 10 Per Cent" for allegedly skimming off commissions on government contracts.

He was jailed a second time in 1996 over corruption allegations and his alleged involvement in an attack on Bhutto's brother, Murtaza, who died in a shootout near his home in Karachi.

After years in prison Mr Zardari was freed in 2004 and left Pakistan to live with his family in the United Arab Emirates. He still faces charges at a Swiss court of money laundering. He is accused of siphoning off $US1.5 billion in kickbacks.

A Geneva magistrate convicted Bhutto and her husband in absentia of money laundering in 2003 under a Swiss law that empowers high-level investigators to impose penalties without a court hearing.

They received six-month suspended sentences and were ordered to pay $US11 million to the Pakistani Government, but the conviction was automatically thrown out when the pair contested it. They were then charged by another Swiss magistrate in 2004 and the case was reopened.

The Swiss investigation against Bhutto for alleged money-laundering was declared closed after her assassination last week, although the parallel investigation against her husband remains open.

Swiss authorities said in 1998 they found about 20 million Swiss francs in Swiss accounts belonging to Bhutto and her family. These accounts were frozen at Pakistan's request.

"Zardari is not very much liked in the party. He goes for big hotels, world's best addresses. He wants to live like a prince abroad," said Rafiq Safi, a longtime party activist.

Mr Zardari also has many critics in the West, which could further complicate US hopes that President Pervez Musharraf and the PPP might form a coalition that would unify moderate forces in Pakistan against extremism.

"The US is not going to be excited about working with Zardari," Daniel Markey, fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post.

AP

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22991942-2703,00.html