ISLAMABAD The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) provided legal cover to corruption, which left the poor of the country on the mercy of God. It was observed in the detailed judgement on the NRO case released by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Tuesday night. The detailed judgement will be a Hobsons choice for the Federation in implementing the apex court decision with full spirit, it was the gist of judgement. It was also written in the verdict that Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution did not give protection to the people who got benefit from NRO. So, the judgement will affect those who have public offices. All steps, actions and orders passed by whatever authority including the orders of discharge and acquittals recorded in favour of the accused, are also declared never to have existed in the eyes of law and resultantly of no legal effect, the court has said in its detailed order read out by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The looted money will be shifted to Pakistan through the legal battle against the cases withdrawn from international courts by the then attorney general of Pakistan Malik Mohammad Qayyum. Regarding the looted money which will be brought back to Pakistan, it was also penned down in the judgement giving reference of Philippines Supreme Court which ruled that the funds transferred from Switzerland to Philippine are ill gotten and must, therefore, be handed over to the Philippine Government, confirming Swiss Federal Courts decision concerning the illegitimate origin of the funds. On 5th August 2003, Swiss and Filipino authorities expressed their satisfaction over the said decision and opined that the funds transferred from Switzerland to PNB escrow account, can now be transferred into the care of the government of Philippines, which was ultimately remitted to the Philippine treasury on 4th February 2004, the judgement further added. Similarly, another reference given in the judgement is from Nigerian jurisdiction, wherein the Head of the State, namely Sani Abacha, was involved in corruption. Proceedings against him were initiated to get his assets back from Switzerland to Nigeria. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry penned a detailed ruling of 287-page. It was also said that the rich through corruption, bulwa, murder, malpractices, nepotism and embezzlement suppressed the poor of the country. It may be reminded here that the SC in its short judgement on December 16 had struck down the controversial NRO, saying it is null and void. In its landmark judgement, a 17-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared the NRO an instrument void ab initio, being ultra vires and violation of various constitutional provisions including Articles 4, 8, 25, 62(f), 63(i)(p), 89, 175 and 227 of the Constitution. Former federal minister Dr Mubashar Hassan, former bureaucrat Roedad Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif had challenged the NRO before the Supreme Court in 2007. The larger bench of the apex court ruled that all cases in which the accused were either discharged or acquitted under Section 2 of the NRO or where proceedings pending against the holders of public office were terminated in view of Section 7 shall stand revived and relegated to the status of pre-5th of October, 2007 position. The Court also directed the concerned courts including the trial, the appellate and the review courts to summon the persons accused in such cases and then to proceed in the respective matters in accordance with law from the stage from where such proceedings had been brought to an end in pursuance of the above provisions of the NRO. However, earlier this month, the Federation had filed a review petition against the short order of the Supreme Court, arguing that the apex court failed to consider the doctrine of past and closed transactions.