pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau official removed

By IANS
Wednesday, March 31, 2010

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani government Wednesday sacked a senior official of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), as also an aide of the country’s interior minister, in line with a Supreme Court directive.

The court had last December nullified the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), an amnesty against graft, and asked the government to remove NAB Prosecutor General Danishwar Malik and Sajjad Haider, the staff officer of Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Danishwar Malik had taken into his possession the court records relating to a Swiss money laundering case involving President Asif Ali Zardari when Pakistan asked for this to be closed citing the NRO, Online news agency reported.

On Wednesday, the NAB told the Supreme Court that the Swiss authorities have been approached to reopen this case.

Then president Pervez Musharraf promulgated the NRO primarily to enable former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Zardari, who faced a slew of corruption cases, to return home from self-imposed exile.

Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack as she left a political rally in the adjacent garrison town of Rawalpindi December 27, 2007.

A host of other politicians, retired army officers and bureaucrats also benefited from the NRO. With the amnesty now being annulled, cases against 158 individuals who had benefited from it have now been reopened.

Haider is considered a close friend of Interior Minister Malik, also a beneficiary of the NRO, besides being accused in another graft case which has now been reopened.

Meanwhile, the names of Danishwar Malik and Sajjad Haider have been included in the exit control list, which means they cannot leave the country without the government’s specific permission.

Filed under: Court, Immigration, India, Pakistan, World

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Discussion

Honest People
April 1, 2010: 4:43 pm

Supreme Court under Iftikhar Chaudhry is utterly dishonest, highly incompetent, intellectually corrupt, politically motivated and totally biased. Reasons for this are detailed below:-
1. In the judgment of 31st July 2009, 14 PCO judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar ousted 104 constitutionally appointed judges and dubbed them as PCO judges inspite of the fact that these 104 judges had never taken oath under any PCO. In fact Iftikhar Chaudhry and his handpicked bench became judges in their own cause and validated their own appointments. This is sheer dishonesty.
2. NRO judgment is in clear violation of article 248. By referring to Swiss Cases President of Pakistan has been targeted despite constitutional immunity. Prosecutor General and Chairman NAB have been ordered to be removed from their offices. There is no law empowering the Supreme Court to order the removal of these persons.
3. NRO judgment is not capable of implementation in totality despite Supreme Courts over exuberance. Supreme Court is just trying to cover up its blunders by forcing Chairman NAB to implement the said judgment lest Supreme Court gets exposed.

PPP government and its legal team lack co-ordination and depth. Their comprehension is slow and response to the illegalities of Supreme Court is either lacking or apologetic. The Attorney General is not performing his constitutional role of telling the Supreme Court that Judiciary is exceeding its constitutional limits. The Attorney General is either silent in this matter for fear of contempt or is unaware of his constitutional obligations as Attorney General. The hitherto performance of Attorney General shows lack of competence and commitment. Senator Faisal Raza Abidi is a fairly competent person but he is alone. He needs a team of accomplished legal experts to support and supplement him. It appears that PPP’s legal advisers are hindering the formation of a larger team of legal experts in order to keep their monopoly. This monopoly is seriously undermining the writ of the government especially when it is facing strong opposition from PML [N] who have very close links with Supreme Court Judges. Some of these connections are detailed below:-
A. Nawaz Sharif has links with Iftikhar Chaudhry through Rana Sanaullah and some other lawyers who are closely connected to Supreme Court Judges.
B. Khalil Ramdey’s son who is a lawyer works for Nawaz Sharif. His nephew is also working for Nawaz and despite his inexperience he was made the Advocate General of Punjab but could continue because of his inability to perform the functions of that office.
C. The daughters and a son-in-law of two recently appointed Supreme Court Judges are working in a law firm of one of the senior legal advisers of Nawaz Sharif. This legal adviser who is also a former Advocate General of Punjab is a close confidant of these judges.
D. The aforesaid former Advocate General and Advocate Hamid Khan have close connections with Justice Jawad Khwaja. This judge at one time was working in the same law firm.

Conclusion
Peoples Party is growing weak because of its indecisiveness and inaction. PPP must tell the supreme court of its constitutional limits or quit. If Dr. Sher Afghan can take on the entire Supreme Court single handedly why can’t the government in power force the Supreme Court to remain within its bounds. Supreme Court’s own validity is questionable and that is why judges are behaving erratically.

These facts are absolutely correct and can be verified by anyone.

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