With the disappearance of a number of crucial legal documents related to the Swiss cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the law ministry is weighing its options including the initiating an inquiry into the disappearance. It is believed that official papers were stolen to let the appeal period against the Swiss’ response to Pakistan’s November 2012 letter lapse.
On Tuesday night, the law ministry in its press release had disclosed: “As relevant files relating directly to the subject are presently not traceable in the Law and Justice Division, our ambassador in Switzerland was requested to send fax copies of all correspondence available with him.”
Sources in the law ministry confided told local media that it is suspected that some one during the last Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) regime had stolen the February 4 response of the Swiss authorities to the November 2012 letter of the Government of Pakistan which was written following the order of the apex court in the NRO implementation case. The Swiss authorities had given ten-day period to the government of Pakistan to appeal against the February 4 response of the Swiss authorities therefore the incident could have been planned to hinder the progress of the case.
The decision of the Attorney General, Geneva dated Feb 4, 2013 stated that the Public Ministry of Geneva has decided not to review the closure order dated 25th August 2008. This was done on the grounds that the statutory limitation period of fifteen years has expired; no new evidence or facts have been revealed; and the Republic of Pakistan procedures constitute an “abuse of power” inasmuch as it is “demanding resumption of the criminal procedure while maintaining that such resumption could not take place.”
The same decision allowed the government of Pakistan to file an appeal before the Criminal Appeal Court within ten days. But that was not done by the then government. The law ministry officials are of the view that writing a letter to the Swiss authorities was delayed for almost three years despite clear order of the Supreme Court only because the previous rulers wanted to use the 15-year period to get the cases time-barred as per Swiss laws.
For the original report, please see http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-23617-Many-letters-documents-missing-from-law-ministry-files
