Islamabad (August 29, 2018): The Apex Court of Pakistan on Wednesday will hear the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) Case today.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan will hear the case.
Earlier on August 28, Former President and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari submitted an assurance that he had no property or bank accounts outside of Pakistan.
Farooq H Naek submitted the one-page affidavit on behalf of the former president to the Supreme Court in a case pertaining to the National Reconciliation Ordinance.A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar is hearing the case related to NRO, passed by Musharraf in 2007. The NRO granted amnesty to politicians and other individuals by quashing various corruption and criminal cases against them so they could return to the country and engage in the democratic process.
In previous hearings, the chief justice had ordered Musharraf and Zardari and former attorney general Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum to submit the details of their foreign bank accounts.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its reply to the supreme court said the anti-graft watchdog had to close its National Reconciliation Ordinance inquiry in 2012 due to the dismissal of the plea by the Swiss government.
NAB said the Swiss authorities dismissed Pakistan’s appeal to reopen the investigation into alleged corruption by Zardari as the government did not submit plea within the time frame.
The graft cases were shelved in 2007 after then attorney general Malik Qayum wrote letters to the Swiss authorities following the promulgation of the NRO by then-president Musharraf.
The Supreme Court, however, scrapped the NRO in 2009 and declared that all cases closed under the defunct law stood open.
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