NRO prevents judges restoration

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.

It is wrongly said that Chief Justice Chaudhry proceeded suo moto against this NRO. This is absolutely wrong. There were actually three petitions filed in the court under Article184 (3). One of these petitions was by a retired bureaucrat and another from an eminent former PPP politician, while I was the lead counsel for the Jamat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the third and the main matter. No court, in my view could have taken a different view while admitting this matter as it involved transgression of many established principles of jurisprudence and the UN laws dealing with corruption. These petitions were head and admitted by a three-member bench in which the chief justice was just a member. So the wrath of the PPP leaders on the chief justice is hardly meritorious.

That it was this political milieu in which General Musharraf on Friday, October 5, 2007, promulgated this National Reconciliation Ordinance, which provides across-the-board indemnity to alleged corruption and corrupt practices by politicians and holders of public offices in the past. Under the ordinance, cases of corruption against public office-holders would be withdrawn and no public office-holder would be arrested in future in corruption cases and powers of the chairman National Accountability Bureau have been considerably clipped.

The federal and provincial governments are now empowered that they may, before the judgement is pronounced by a trial court, withdraw from the prosecution of any person, including an absconding accused that is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimisation in any case initiated between January 1, 1986 to October 12, 1999. This is exactly what has happened in many cases involving many who are in daily news as being the leaders of the current coalition in power.

That to sugarcoat the swallowing of this bitter pill of dishonesty, the general (retd) used the high sounding adjectival description. "National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007" which allegedly aimed at promoting national reconciliation, fostering mutual trust and confidence amongst holders of public office and remove the vestiges of political vendetta and victimisation, and to make the election process more transparent. The truth is quite the contrary. It was forced upon Musharraf by the British and the US to accommodate the criticism that they were helping stark dictatorship in Pakistan.