The Surrey Palace case against Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has been terminated by a UK court after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) instructed its London solicitors to withdraw from the proceedings with immediate effect.
Lahore, Mar 21 : The Surrey Palace case against Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has been terminated by a UK court after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) instructed its London solicitors to withdraw from the proceedings with immediate effect.
The chairman of NAB reportedly wrote a letter to the NAB's London solicitors in the third week of February, instructing them to withdraw proceedings immediately.
The News, reported that the solicitors did not refer to the fate of the sale proceeds of the farm in Surrey, commonly known in Pakistan as the Surrey Palace, which will consequently be returned to the owner of the property.
Sources in NAB refused to divulge the exact amount that is to go back to the owner of the Surrey Farmhouse. A London-based attorney hinted that it was in the vicinity of four million pounds.
The property known as Rockwood was reportedly purchased in 1995 at a cost of 2.5 million pounds and in 1996 refurbished allegedly by Zardari at a cost of two million pounds.
NAB had always claimed that the Surrey Palace was secretly purchased by Zardari and Benazir Bhutto with the proceeds of corruption and their ownership was concealed behind offshore companies.
Zardari has been denying the ownership of Rockwood Surrey Palace.
ANI