Still reeling from the repercussions of the memogate scandal, the government may suffer another blow as an ultimatum given by the Supreme Court to the government and all the authorities concerned to ensure implementation by January 10 of its verdict declaring the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) unconstitutional, failing which the court would not pass any further orders but directly take action, is expiring today (Tuesday). However, nothing seems to have been done to ensure implementation of the verdict and instead, Law Secretary Masood Chishti, who had to appear in court today, has abruptly left for London without giving a return schedule. The law secretary had to inform the court on Tuesday about the reopening of graft cases against dozens of people, including President Asif Zardari, in Switzerland. A five-member special bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed will resume hearing of the case today. On January 3, the court had observed that it would not pass any further orders for implementation of its verdict in the NRO case but would take action against those responsible for the failure to implement the orders irrespective of their office or official authority. “Make it clear to everyone concerned that the next date of hearing (January 10) will be the last and final and the court will take appropriate action in case of non-implementation of the NRO verdict, no matter how high an authority [those responsible] enjoy,” the court had ruled. On November 26, 2011, a 17-member Supreme Court bench had thrown out the government’s petition for a review of the apex court’s December 16, 2009 ruling, which had struck down the controversial NRO. The rejection had increased pressure on the government to start pursuing the money laundering cases against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders, including the president, in Switzerland. After the December 16 verdict, despite repeated orders of the apex court, the government neither wrote letters to the Swiss authorities to reopen the case against President Zardari, nor did the president claim immunity under Article 248 of the constitution. In that judgement, the court had declared unauthorised, unconstitutional and illegal former attorney general Malik Qayyum’s
communications with the Swiss authorities, in which he had asked them to close the money laundering cases against President Zardari. The court had ordered action against Qayyum, but the government did nothing and he fled the country.
The verdict had not directly mentioned the immunity issue, but many observers were of the opinion that President Zardari could be prosecuted in cases which existed before the promulgation of the NRO on October 5, 2007. But the government kept dragging its feet on the issue of writing letters to foreign authorities.
The government’s defiance prompted the Supreme Court to initiate simultaneous proceedings of overseeing the implementation of the NRO judgement, which ordered communication with the Swiss authorities to reopen the cases of money laundering amounting to $60 million.
The NRO review case saw many twists and turns and at one point, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani himself requested the apex court through Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to decide the review petition instead of overseeing its implementation.
After the dismissal of the government’s review petition, there is now no hurdle for the court to ensure implementation of its verdict. During the hearing of the review case, the government often came out with various excuses to delay the hearing. One common ploy adopted by the government was to change its counsel. Many NRO beneficiaries were restored by the government, however after the court’s intervention they were removed.
The NRO, promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf, granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1, 1986 to October 12, 1999, the time between two states of martial laws.
