Pakistan president’s immunity challenged in Supreme Court
By IANSWednesday, April 14, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s constitutional immunity from prosecution has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
In a petition filed in the court Wednesday, Communist Party of Pakistan leader Jamir Amhad Malik contended that article 248 of the constitution, under which the president enjoyed immunity related only to criminal cases and not to domestic or international corruption cases.
He also wanted the court to interpret whether this immunity was in line with the Islamic provisions of the constitution, Online news agency reported.
The petition acquires importance since the government has reopened a $60 million Swiss money laundering case against Zardari after the Supreme Court overturned an amnesty against graft that former president Pervez Musharraf had promulgated in October 2007.
The amnesty, in the form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) had been promulgated 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 Dec 27, 2007.
A host of other politicians, retired army officers and bureaucrats had also benefited from the NRO.
The Supreme Court had in December 2009 nullified the NRO and had ordered the revival of all cases that had been closed under it.
On March 31, Pakistan’s corruption watchdog, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had informed the Supreme Court that it had written to the Swiss authorities to reopen the case against Zardari.
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April 20, 2010: 4:27 pm
where I find the supreme court of Pakistan are still unfair. I have written and send evidence to the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court Registrar of Supreme court of my Pakistan since now two months I had no reply. I regret to say where I see that every court in my Pakistan still seems to be corrupt or ignorance and do justice with out reading evidence. need to see proof then email me. I challenge that the electric lode shading can be over come within one month. |
 arslan |
April 16, 2010: 7:28 am
Everyone will welcome an independent judiciary that functions within its bounds and constitutional limits. But a close review of the proceedings and spontaneous remarks by their lordships provides a hint to the ultimate outcome: the verdict. Be it the NRO proceedings or its implementation, the appointed benches are bent upon making an example out of anyone slightly unyielding or daring enough to question their interpretations or orders. All of us would like the nation to recover its looted wealth. However, as regards reopening the Swiss cases, before forcing NAB to write to the Swiss government, it would have been wiser to have examined the widely reported claims that these cases have lapsed the re-trial period and cannot be reopened. But the Supreme Court (SC) kept on flogging NAB and other government functionaries until they relented. How would it reflect on the country if the Swiss courts revert to the reported ‘statutory limitation’? |
Syed Khalid Ahmed