ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An anti-corruption court on Friday quashed the last outstanding charge in Pakistan against the husband of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, clearing the way for him to lead her party into a new coalition government.
With the newly elected parliament convening Monday, the ruling lifted a potential roadblock to Asif Ali Zardari taking a role in the Cabinet. There is speculation he may seek to become prime minister; Pakistani law bars anyone convicted of a crime from holding office.
A judge in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad, acquitted Zardari in a case involving the importation of a German limousine.
Six other corruption cases dating from his wife's time in office in the 1990s already were dismissed against Zardari, including charges related to the construction of a polo ground at the prime minister's residence and the purchase of thousands of Polish tractors.
Those were wiped away under an order passed by U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf last year that was supposed to foster reconciliation between his 8-year-old military government and the country's political parties.
The gesture spurred Bhutto to return to Pakistan in October after nearly eight years in self-exile. Seventy days later, she was assassinated, allegedly by Islamic extremists.
Her party, led jointly by Zardari and the couple's 19-year-old son, led the voting in last month's parliamentary elections and is set to form a coalition government with the moderate party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
Allies of the increasingly unpopular Musharraf were routed in the vote. His friendship with America is believed by many Pakistanis to have made the country more vulnerable to terrorism, pointing to escalating violence by Islamic militants.
With corruption charges behind him, Zardari is now poised to command alongside Sharif when the new parliament convenes.
Bhutto's party has yet to decide on its candidate for prime minister.
There are several hopefuls, including its vice chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a veteran politician whose father helped Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, establish the party in the 1960s.
But the party's delay in announcing the premiership candidate has fueled speculation Zardari wants the post himself.
Zardari is currently ineligible because he did not run for a seat in parliament. But he could maneuver for the post by naming an interim prime minister, then contest a by-election and win a seat as early as this summer.
However, many Pakistanis view Zardari as a symbol of the corruption and misrule by civilian governments that nearly bankrupted the country in the 1990s. They know him as "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly pocketing kickbacks when his wife was prime minister.
Zardari spent years in jail without being convicted and insists all the graft charges were politically motivated.
Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's party, called the charges against Zardari "fictitious." His acquittal Friday "vindicates the position our party has held for more than one decade," Babar said.
Judge Saghir Ahmed Qadri dismissed the graft charge "due to lack of evidence," prosecutor Zulfikar Ahmad Bhutta said.
The case marked the last legal hurdle for Zardari at home, but a money-laundering inquiry is still pending against him in Switzerland.
"Thank god the agony is over," his attorney, Farooq Naek, jubilantly told reporters outside the courthouse.
"After a struggle of 11 years, the state has failed to prove any case against Mr. Zardari," Naek said. "After a long darkness in the tunnel, the light has come."
