Islamabad : Seven graft cases against PPP Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and a close aide were on Wednesday dropped by Pakistani anti-corruption courts, a week after the apex court dismissed legal challenges to a controversial order granting amnesty to the party leaders in corruption cases.

Anti-corruption courts in Rawalpindi, which quashed the cases against Zardari and his close aide Rehman Malik, also ordered the release of the PPP Chairman's assets and properties that were frozen or confiscated, including bank accounts and sugar mills.

The cases related to a contentious deal for the import of tractors and the alleged amassing of wealth beyond known sources of income and dated back to the time when Zardari's late wife, Benazir Bhutto, was in power in 1990s.

Wednesday's decisions by two anti-corruption courts in Rawalpindi were widely expected after the National Accountability Bureau decided not to pursue corruption charges against Zardari last week.

This followed the Supreme Court's decision on February 27 to vacate a stay order on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), a controversial law passed in October last year by President Pervez Musharraf to grant amnesty in graft cases to PPP leaders, including Zardari and Bhutto.