The Supreme Court (SC) has rejected the government’s pleas to review the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict. The decision was given by a full bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry after the government failed to prepare any case for the review.
In this worst of times and epoch of incredulity, the Apex Court is the only spring of hope in this winter of discontent for the people of Pakistan.
The conflict between SC and the government is not a secret for any. Government’s record in the past has not been encouraging, with an obdurate refusal to implement the decisions on some other high profile cases. This is an attitude which is leading us towards a debacle with the dictates of the Constitution being disregarded and institutions coming closure to a point of clash.
The 17-member SC bench headed by the Chief Justice has found that the government in fact had no case to put up despite being given additional time to place more documents on record. It means that government has nothing to say and nothing to offer in defence.
At this time, only one path leads us to take action against all those people who were benefited by NRO. Cases of more than 800 beneficiaries of NRO must be reopened and the government should take action against them as soon as possible.
The patience of people has run short and they want to see order and accountability, rather than continued chaos. Criminals, killers, terrorists and other corrupt elements of this society who were benefited by NRO must be prosecuted before law.
In short, the beauty of democracy lies in fighting against all forces of evil and it is time the government proved it by implementing this decision of the Apex Court for the betterment of our democratic system.
SARWECH SARYO
Rato Dero
