A petition has been filed against Pakistan’s Supreme Court’s decision of reopening the cases filed against President Asif Ali Zardari in Swiss courts, local TV channels reported Saturday.
Barrister Zafarullah, a lawyer who filed the petition in Lahore registry of Supreme Court, stated that Supreme Court has no right to order reopening of cases within or outside the country against President Zardari because article 248 of Constitution provided indemnity to President of Pakistan like other countries, the private TV Dawn News reported.
Barrister Zafarullah said Supreme Court’s decision of reopening foreign cases is unconstitutional and beyond jurisdiction. Therefore, Supreme Court should review its decision of reopening cases and declare the orders issued in this connection as void.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court nullified on Wednesday the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that had given Zardari and thousands of other government officials amnesty from prosecution on corruption charges, a decision that could reopen charges against Zardari.
The Supreme Court also ordered the Pakistani government to inform Swiss authorities that a case against Zardari there may be reopened. Swiss judicial authorities said in Aug. 2008 that they had closed a money-laundering case against Zardari and had released 60 million U.S. dollars frozen in Swiss accounts for a decade.
According to local channel reports, Swiss justice ministry said that there is no case against Zardari in Switzerland unless the Pakistani government initiate inquiry.
The NRO, which was issued by the former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf on Oct. 5, 2007 as part of a political deal to allow Benazir Bhutto to return from years of exile to Pakistan, was challenged in the Supreme Court and a 17-member bench of the apex court in a unanimous short verdict cancelled the NRO and described as contrary to the constitution.
Meanwhile, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the article 248 of the Constitution regarding the immunity given to the President in cases, local channel Geo News reported Saturday.
The petitioner Khalid Khawja, an officer of Defense of Human Rights Commission, said in his plea that the article stands in contradiction with the human rights and the Islamic injunctions, accordingly, it should be quashed.
The Supreme Court has constituted a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry to hear appeals in NRO cases from Dec. 21.