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SC Disposes of Petition Against Musharraf, Zardari

Islamabad (January 04, 2019): The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a constitutional petition against former presidents General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and Asif Ali Zardari, seeking recovery of “losses incurred by the national exchequer following the promulgation of 2007’s National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar observed that the apex court shall not proceed further in the matter as the respondents had submitted details of their assets on record.

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The bench, however, ruled that the petitioner could further pursue the matter in a proper forum. When informed that the petitioner could not attend the hearing, the bench noted that he had already submitted a concise statement in the public interest case.

Nominating Musharraf, Zardari and former attorney general Malik Abdul Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had requested the apex court to order recovery of “huge amounts of public money” misappropriated and wasted by the respondents through unlawful means “already on record in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court”.

He had contended that Musharraf subverted the Constitution by declaring emergency followed by the promulgation of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were “arbitrarily withdrawn” causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.“Since the SC in its landmark judgment of December 16, 2009 has declared the NRO void ab initio, the respondents are liable to compensate the losses and the damage suffered by the exchequer of debt-ridden Pakistan, including the loss of $60 million stashed in Swiss banks allegedly by Zardari,” he said.

He had said Malik Qayyum had written a letter to the attorney general for Geneva to withdraw criminal and civil proceedings against Zardari, but the Supreme Court in its 2009 judgment held that Qayyum had written the letter in his personal capacity, against the Rules of Business, 1973.

“The actions of Musharraf and Qayyum by promulgating the NRO caused huge losses amounting to billions of rupees to debt-ridden Pakistan. Both willfully violated the oath of office to the detriment of the country in violation of the rule of the law, particularly of Articles 2, 2A, 25, 227 of the Constitution,” the petition alleged.

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