Fate of NRO beneficiaries remains uncertain

Although the Supreme Court has thrown out the government’s petitions in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) review case, the fate of the NRO beneficiaries still remains uncertain as the government is in no mood to take action against them because most of them are affiliated with political parties that are currently part of the coalition government.
Though some influential politicians have gotten themselves cleared from cases they were facing, the apex court may still order a review of such cases cleared through political clout.
The promulgation of the controversial law on October 5, 2007 had benefited most of the country’s top politicians belonging to two major political parties: the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
However, when the Supreme Court later termed the NRO null and void in 2009, some smart politicians, including Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Agha Siraj Durrani, Salman Farooqui, some of the MQM leaders and others, chose to get their cases cleared from lower courts where their political clout and ministerial portfolios would command sufficient authority.
EX-CJ: Former chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqi says the politicians in question could be prosecuted by the court under Article 184/3 of the constitution. “I suppose that the apex court has already taken notice of such cases under which influential politicians have gotten the benefit of their positions and they have been cleared by courts as the prosecutors refused to contest the cases and said they had no evidence against them. I think the court has already formed a commission to review all such cases in which shady characters have been cleared,” he added.
Interestingly, the list release by Mohammed Afzal Sindu, the minister of state for law at the time the NRO was nullified who was later sacked by President Asif Ali Zardari for following Supreme Court orders, contained the breakdown of only those withdrawn cases that pertained to the MQM. The document is silent about the number of cases registered against PPP beneficiaries.
MOST BENEFICIARIES: Most of the NRO beneficiaries have been bureaucrats and government officials according to a list released by the Law Ministry on November 21, 2009, containing the names of only 34 politicians out of a total of 8,041.
According to the list, prominent leaders and bureaucrats who enjoyed immunity under the NRO included slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari, Rehman Malik, the late Nusrat Bhutto, former minister Yousuf Talpur, PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badr and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, among others. Almost 97 percent of the beneficiaries hail from Sindh, seeing as top politicians from the PPP and MQM – both majority parties from rural and urban parts of Sindh – benefited from the law the most. Leaders from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Awami National Party (ANP) were also among the NRO beneficiaries, said the list.
The list shows that around 3,478 cases were withdrawn against the NRO beneficiaries out of which 3,320 cases were withdrawn by the Sindh government. The cases that were withdrawn were registered on charges of corruption, financial bungling, misuse of authority and criminal charges.
ZARDARI: President Zardari enjoys immunity under Article 248 of the constitution and, according to legal experts, cannot be prosecuted for new or old cases against him as long as he is the president. However, despite the court verdict, some experts say that relief once granted cannot be reversed under the law.
The list showed that MQM chief Altaf Hussain had been spared in the highest number of cases, 72, including 31 murder and 11 attempted murder charges. Dr Farooq Sattar, the MQM’s parliamentary leader, came in second. A total of 23 cases were withdrawn against him, including five murder cases and four attempted murder cases.
The third biggest beneficiary appeared to be Provincial Minister Shoaib Bukhari of the MQM, against whom 21 cases were withdrawn, including 16 murder and attempted murder charges.
Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghouri, Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad, Saleem Shahzad, Waseem Akhtar and former MNA Kunwar Khalid Yunus were other prominent MQM leaders who benefited from the NRO, according to the list.
Among the beneficiaries from the PPP were Interior Minister Malik, who later got all his cases cleared from the courts, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who claims he did not get relief from the NRO, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Mir Baz Khetran, Sindh Provincial Minister Agha Siraj Durrani and Senator Jehangir Badar.
Although PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has been claiming that no member of his party benefited from the NRO, the list showed that at least five PML-N members had, namely MNA Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, Rana Nazir Ahmed, former MNAs Chaudhry Abdul Hameed and Haji Kabir and former MPA Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali.
In November 2009, the PPP government did not present a list of beneficiaries of the NRO in the National Assembly despite a promise made by the prime minister to that effect. The list also had names of around 5,800 people who were accused of financial irregularities and criminal cases.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had also prepared a fresh list of 233 cases of financial irregularities against 248 people that were withdrawn or disposed of under the NRO, said media reports.
Original lists submitted by the provincial governments and the NAB to the federal government involved Rs 708 billion siphoned off through kickbacks, corruption and misuse of authority. Almost all the cases were settled or closed after February 5, 2008.
Eight cases against President Zardari were disposed of under the NRO. The charges concerned kickbacks from the SGS PSI company, grant of licence to ARY Gold, alleged corruption in purchase of Ursus tractors under Awami Tractor Scheme, award of pre-shipment contract to Cotecna, assets beyond means, kickbacks received from former Pakistan Steel Mills chairman Sajjad Ahmed, construction of a polo ground at PM’s House and money laundering in the SGS Swiss case. The Ursus tractors case against his co-accused Nawab Yousaf Talpur was also disposed of.
Ten bureaucrats from Balochistan, mostly belonging to Revenue, Water and Customs Departments, also benefited from the NRO.
It is unclear whether cases against Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, including the Hudaibya Paper Mills case, were settled under the NRO or are still pending in court.