LAHORE: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has decided to take up for regular hearing two pending corruption cases against President Asif Zardari which are likely to be heard on Nov 16 and Nov 17.
Case No Crl.A. 211/98 (Ehtesab) (DB) titled ‘Asif Ali Zardari vs The state’ and Case No Crl.A. 282/99 (Transfer) (DB) (ATC) with titled ‘The state vs Asif Ali Zardari’, have been placed on the Cause List for hearing by Bench No 3 of the Supreme Court, which consists of Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed. Notices have also been issued to prominent lawyers, including Mehr Khan Malik and Chaudhry Akhtar Ali, Deputy Attorney-General. In one case senior advocate Aitzaz Ahsan had been defending President Zardari during the Musharraf era. But when differences emerged between the two following at the start of the movement for the restoration of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in early 2007, Zardari appointed Farooq Naek and Latif Khosa as his counsel.
However, the Supreme Court has also issued a notice to Aitzaz Ahsan in this case, considering him to be Zardari’s lawyer. But it could not be ascertained if Aitzaz Ahsan will represent Zardari in the case or not. A senior legal expert, who remained attached with NAB cases, has expressed ignorance about the cases. “All the cases of Ehtesab Bureau were transferred to NAB and all NAB cases had been closed under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) issued by Musharraf in February 2008.” he said, adding: “I can comment after seeing the file of the case as to why this case has been put up in the Cause List of the apex court.” He added that it is also possible that the case was closed and may now have been put on the Cause List because of some application moved in the Supreme Court against its closure.
In the second case, to be heard on Nov 17, titled ‘The state vs Asif Ali Zardari’, notices have been issued to Akhlaq Ahmad Siddiqui and late Faizan-ul-Haq. According to a senior legal expert, this case might have become infructuous because of the NRO but may still be on the Cause List because the petition filed by the state against President Zardari may not have been withdrawn so far. Legal experts are confused as to why these cases have been put on the apex court’s list as after the expiry of the NRO, the cases closed under this unconstitutional and discriminatory ordinance are yet to be opened. But a Supreme Court spokesman has maintained that the taking up of the pending cases against President Zardari is a routine matter. It may be recalled that President Zardari has spent almost 11 years in prison for charges ranging from corruption to murder, in spite of not being convicted in any of them.
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