Supreme Court orders Zardari graft cases to be reopened (Lead)
March 12th, 2010 - 6:50 pm ICT by IANS
Islamabad, March 12 (IANS) The noose seems to be tightening around Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, with the Supreme Court saying a Swiss money laundering case against him should be immediately reopened.
At a hearing Friday, the court asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to immediately write to the Swiss authorities for reopening the case and also take into its custody the records related to the case lying in London, Online news agency reported.
The ruling came after the NAB submitted that it was hampered in its efforts because records relating to the case had gone missing during the tenure of then president Pervez Musharraf.
Dissatisfied with this statement, Judge Tariq Pervez said the court was not interested in individuals and asked the NAB to recover the missing records, Geo TV reported.
Judge Javed Iqbal wondered why a Supreme Court order striking down an amnesty against graft was not being implemented, adding that the prosecutor general did not seem to be interested in pursuing NAB cases.
In August 2008, Swiss judicial authorities, acting on the request of the Pakistani government, closed the money-laundering case against Zardari and released $60 million frozen in Swiss accounts.
The Pakistani government had cited the amnesty against graft promulgated by Musharraf as the reason for seeking closure of the case.
Musharraf had promulgated the amnesty, in the form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), primarily to enable former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Zardari, who faced a slew of corruption cases, to return home from self-imposed exile.
Some 250 other politicians, retired army officers and bureaucrats also benefited from the NRO.
The Supreme Court in December 2009 termed the NRO unconstitutional and ordered the reopening of all the cases closed after its promulgation.
Zardari and his aides have been blowing hot and cold since then. While he says he is ready to face the courts, his aides insist he enjoys presidential immunity, at least as long as he is in office.
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- 'Only government can revive Swiss corruption case against Zardari' - Feb 23, 2010
- Geneva approached to reopen Zardari's graft case - Mar 31, 2010
- Can't write letter against Zardari: Gilani's counsel to court - Mar 21, 2012
- Next government can approach Swiss courts: Zardari - Jan 08, 2012
- First for Pakistan, PM indicted for contempt (Second Lead) - Feb 13, 2012
- Apex court issues show-cause notice to Pakistani PM - Aug 08, 2012
- Gilani offers to quit after apex court contempt notice (Second Lead) - Jan 16, 2012
- Pakistani PM faces SC, seeks time to write Swiss letter (Lead) - Aug 27, 2012
- Supreme Court warns Gilani of another contempt notice - Mar 29, 2012
- Pakistani PM gets two weeks to write to Swiss powers - Jul 25, 2012
- pakistan's National Accountability Bureau official removed - Mar 31, 2010
- Records of Zardari's Swiss graft case brought to Pakistan - Apr 01, 2010
- Gilani indicted for contempt (Lead) - Feb 13, 2012
- In a first for Pakistan, PM indicted for contempt (Third Lead) - Feb 13, 2012
Tags: army officers, asif ali zardari, benazir bhutto, bureaucrats, corruption cases, former prime minister, geo tv, javed iqbal, judicial authorities, missing records, nab, national accountability bureau, national reconciliation, nro, pakistani government, pervez musharraf, prosecutor general, supreme court orders, swiss accounts, swiss authorities