The Pakistan government today closed corruption cases against Asif Ali Zardari shortly after the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions challenging Musharraf’s controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) promulgated last October, even as Zardari’s PPP and two coalition partners jointly demanded that President Pervez Musharraf immediately convene the National Assembly.
With Musharraf’s fate hanging in balance, the graft cases were “terminated” a special Bench of the Supreme Court today dismissed all five petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the NRO promulgated by President Pervez Musharraf on October 5 to extend general amnesty on corruption and criminal cases filed between 1986-1999.
The ordinance pardoned cases against slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, her spouse Asif Zardari and scores of other politicians. It also
freed several thousand activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) facing criminal charges, including murder. In return Bhutto facilitated Musharraf’s election on October 6 by distancing her party from the combined Opposition move to resign en bloc from assemblies. The Supreme Court under deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had stayed the implementation of the ordinance.
Dismissing five petitions in the case as not pursued, the special Bench vacated the stay order. The petitions were filed by Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, retired bureaucrat Roedad Khan, former PPP leader Dr Mubashir Hassan and Tariq Asad. The action quickly triggered speculation of a possible understanding between Zardari and Musharraf.
These petitions had named President Pervez Musharraf, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, interior minister Aftab Sherpao, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the federation of Pakistan as respondents in the case. No counsel for the petitioners appeared before the court, apparently in keeping with the stance by lawyers that the court had been reconstituted with constitutional sanction after illegally purging it of 13 of the 17 judges.
The petitioners had maintained that the NRO was against public interest as it gave a blanket cover to corruption. They further argued that the NRO violated Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality for everyone.
Attorney-general Qayyum Malik later told newsmen that although the NRO had expired after four months, it application had been provided constitutional protection under the amendments introduced in the Constitution before lifting emergency on December 15.
