Pak minister faces arrest ahead of talks with Chidambaram

In a major setback for the Pakistan People's Party-led civilian government, the Lahore high court on Monday dismissed an appeal filed by Interior Minister Rehman Malik against his conviction and sentencing in two corruption cases by another court.

The anti-corruption court, acting on references by the National Accountability Bureau, had awarded Malik a three-year prison term. The court pronounced the sentences after the minister failed to turn up for the trial, according to a report in The Dawn.

The report quoted Malik's counsel as saying that he had not received any notice from the court, and the verdict pronounced in his absence was illegal.

The Lahore high court had earlier suspended the rulings against Mailik and granted him bail, according to the report.

But the court on Monday dismissed his counsel's plea and restored the accountability court's verdict, reported The Dawn.

Legal experts told the daily that Malik could be arrested soon.

Malik was among the 8,000 beneficiaries of a controversial graft amnesty struck down by the Supreme Court.

The accountability or anti-corruption court in Karachi had earlier issued the arrest warrants against Malik in connection with two graft cases that were closed under the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

The cases relate to alleged misuse of authority and receipt of two cars for ordering a contract to a firm.

Authorities had already placed Malik's name on the interior ministry's Exit Control List, a move that bars him from traveling abroad.

Malik, a close confidant of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, had served as the security officer of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto. However, it was alleged that he was nowhere near the PPP chief when she was assassinated in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi, during a campaign rally.

The interior minister's imminent arrest will also hit the newly-renewed peace efforts between India and Pakistan. He was also scheduled to meet Home Minister P Chidambaram on June 26, on the sidelines of a meeting of home ministers from countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation grouping.

Image: A file photograph of Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik after he appeared before the accountability court in Lahore in December | Photograph: Mohsin Raza/Reuters