LAHORE: As the Pakistani Supreme Court is moving forward aggressively with the hearing of a controversial presidential ordinance issued by Musharraf in 2007 which allowed Asif Zardari and many other leading politicians to contest the general elections, there are strong rumours that the court might disqualify the Pakistani President from holding the coveted slot by declaring him ineligible, as the military judiciary nexus is set to be revived.
The military-judiciary nexus came to an abrupt end in March 2007 when General Pervez Musharraf had sacked the Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on corruption charges. The Chief justice and 60 other superior courts judges were reinstated by the Zardari government following the 2007 general elections. The same judges are now hearing two identical constitutional petitions, challenging the notorious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) which was promulgated by President Musharraf in 2007 to provide relief to those key politicians who had maintained they had been victimised politically and the cases filed against them were baseless. As a 17-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is about to decide the future of the NRO in the coming week, there are many who believe Pakistan was quickly entering the post-Zardari phase.
During the hearing of the NROP case on Monday, the presidential lawyer Kamal Azfar had expressed apprehensions before the apex court that the democratic system was under grave threat from the General Headquarters (GHQ), while the court’s decision might put the whole democratic dispensation under threat as well. The fact that Zardari’s closest ministers and cronies like Interior Minister Rehman Malik are now being publicly named in multi-million rupees scandals by affected parties in the highest courts of the country, shows they will also soon be in the dock inside crowded court rooms, if they do not pay off their way to escape overseas. As the NRO’s fate is decided in coming days and weeks, many more cases challenging the qualification of President Zardari are set to be filed and heard by the Supreme Court is ominous. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has already informed submitted in the Supreme Court during the hearing of the NRO case that Zardari possesses assets worth $1.5 billion (Rs 120 billion) abroad and worth Rs 24.14 billion in the country. The list indicates that the assets of President Zardari in foreign countries stand at $1.5 billion, including houses and bank accounts in Spain, France, the US and Britain while his assets in the country stand at Rs 24.14 billion.
In the list, President Zardari’s assets worth Rs 22 billion were mentioned as beyond means and the cases in this regard were withdrawn by Accountability Court on March 5, 2008, under the controversial NRO. Similarly, cases of corruption of Rs 268.3 million regarding the purchase of Ursus Tractors (Awami Scheme) and illegal construction of the polo ground at the PM House at the cost of Rs 52.297 million were terminated under the NRO in March 2008. Likewise, the list also includes allegedly causing loss of Rs 1.822 billion to the national exchequer by President Zardari by granting licence to the ARY Gold. The said case was also terminated under the NRO ordinance. And all these cases are likely to be reopened once the apex court declares illegal the NRO as the federation of Pakistan has already announced not to defend the controversial NRO.
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