KARACHI A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced an ex-provincial minister and relative of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to three years in jail on graft charges, officials said. Mir Munawar Talpur, brother-in-law of Bhutto's jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari, was also fined 20 million rupees (around 400,000 dollars), court officials said. Judge Ghous Mohammad, head of the anti-corruption bench of the Sindh High Court, found Talpur guilty of awarding a contract in violation of rules to a private company to collect a municipal goods tax.

Four officials of the company were each jailed for two years as well as being given fines totalling 650,000 dollars. Talpur said he would appeal to the Supreme Court. It was the second jail term in a week handed down to Talpur. On Wednesday he was sentenced to a three-year imprisonment in another corruption case. The same judge in November 5 jailed a senior leader of Bhutto's party, Pir Mazhar-ul Haq, for two years on graft charges.

Bhutto was sacked in November 1996 on charges of corruption and misrule. Zardari, arrested soon after the dismissal of his wife's government, has been in jail since then. The couple, who face several corruption cases filed against them by an official anti-corruption bureau, have accused the government of political persecution. (AFP)