NRO prevents judges restoration
By Dr Farooq Hassan | Published: May 28, 2008- Digg
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The civil society and the lawyer's fraternity stand totally bewildered why the judges' matter still awaits resolution. We have heard all kinds of hopelessly outlandish explanations from the government. It is said that to undo an admittedly wrong action a constitutional amendment is needed! How can anyone be so ignorant of the law to contend as such when both law and politics want a simpler answer?
I am astonished and much saddened that in the Pakistan political and social milieu the forces of evil appear to be holding firm. It is not a small matter that despite the clear writing on the wall that without solving the matter of judges' restoration, PPP and Zardari are doomed to a dismal a failure.
The truth of the matter is that Musharraf after saying so much about Zardari and BB suddenly agreed to let them come? Irrespective of the fact that the US and British Foreign administrations intervened in this deal, the simple quid pro quo for Musharraf was exactly what is now transpiring. For getting several leaders literally keep the hundreds of millions of Dollars of corruption money and by foreclosing the threat of long jail sentences, he has them literally hanging in the air. The basic passport of the survival of such leaders is the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
What the president did was to put this NRO in the constitution schedules along with the same illegal bunch of "laws" that were enacted pursuant to the November 3 usurpation. If the judges come back by having that Musharraf act considered unlawful ab initio by a National Assembly Resolution, the NRO constitutional safeguards also goes. So the PPP leadership have to be worried as they cannot agree to their own ouster from the highest positions in the county right now just for the sake of judges who "if" they come back will strike down this NRO.
One cannot fail to see that everyday the applications for acquittal from serious corruption cases has come from these very leaders, all of whom were living in luxury in the US or UK until October when the NRO was signed by Musharraf. So if the NRO falls they face possible hardship and the possible restitution of lots of illegal money. I think that forgetting past misdeeds is reluctantly acceptable if it leads to national goodwill. But to do so to give a perpetual cover of practical indemnity to a military ruler is not something I can agree with.




