Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has directed its embassy in Switzerland to immediately file an appeal against the Swiss government’s decision of not reopening the cases against President Zardari and others.
Sources said that the Pakistani ambassador had been told to take up the matter with the Swiss authorities at the earliest to ensure that the cases were reopened as per the decision of the apex court in the NRO case. Sources further said that Pakistan would explain the circumstances which led to the delays and dithering in Islamabad while assisting the Swiss authorities in the cases of money laundering.
Pakistan’s ambassador to Switzerland on June 18 had forwarded the February 4, 2013 decision of the attorney general in Geneva, which was later found to be missing from the law ministry’s record in Islamabad.
The Swiss attorney general had stated that the Public Ministry of Geneva had decided not to review the closure order dated 25th August 2008 on the grounds that the statutory limitation period of 15 years had expired; no new evidence or facts had been revealed; and the Republic of Pakistan procedures constitute an “abuse of power” inasmuch as it is “demanding resumption of the criminal procedure P/11105/1997 while maintaining that such resumption could not take place.”
The Swiss decision had offered Islamabad an opportunity to appeal before the Criminal Appeal Court within 10 days but it was not done as the law ministry, during the PPP regime, never shared this information with the apex court and the communication disappeared from official files.
Through its ambassador in Switzerland, the previous government had sent a letter dated November 5, 2012 addressed to the Swiss attorney general along with Para-178 of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Dr Mubashir Hassan’s case (PLD 2010 SC 265) with the direction that this should be delivered to the attorney general either directly or through his representative, and receipt obtained for submission to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The purpose of the said letter was to get the cases, which were closed down in 2008 following the NRO agreement reached between Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf, reopened. The PPP government was supposed to write the same letter to the Swiss authorities soon after the NRO judgment was handed down in December 2009 but it was delayed for almost three years.
The purpose of the said delay was to get the statutory limitation period of 15 years expired. The PPP had to sacrifice one of its prime ministers, Yusuf Raza Gilani, on this issue.Following the NRO agreement, Attorney General of Pakistan in 2008 had approached the Swiss authorities with the message from the Government of Pakistan that request for mutual legal assistance made earlier in 1997 was illegal and had no legal effect and was hereby withdrawn by the Government of Pakistan and may be treated as never have been written.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in December 2009 had declared the NRO as illegal and void abinitio. While doing so, it asked for the reopening of all corruption cases, within Pakistan and outside, which were closed because of the NRO.