Petition seeks disqualification of beneficiaries

The Supreme Court was requested on Friday to disqualify National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) beneficiaries - the parliamentarians and public office-holders - involved in heinous crimes after the examination of their case history.
All the accused of murder, intent to murder and kidnapping, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, Dr Imran Farooq, Saleem Shehzad, Kunwar Khalid Younus, Dr Safdar Baqri and others, who were not granted bail by the courts, should be arrested through Interpol and produced before the courts, prayed the petition.
Syed Muhammad Iqbal of Human Rights Commission for South Asia filed a petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution, nominating the Federation, Law Secretary Election Commission Secretary, provincial governments and former President Pervez Musharraf as respondents.
On December 16, a 17-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, declared the NRO invalid from the outset (void ab intio) being against the national interest as it was meant 'to give benefit to a select group of people' and had violated the Constitution.
The court held that "as a consequence of the said declaration, all steps taken, actions suffered, and all orders passed by whatever authority, any orders passed by the courts of law, including the orders of discharge and acquittals recorded in favour of the accused persons, are also declared never to have existed in the eyes of the law and resultantly of no legal effect."
The petitioner also requested the court for registration of a high treason case against former president Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution and High Treason Act 1976 for subversion of the Constitution. The petition prayed to the court to summon the case histories of all the accused politicians and public office-holders and examine in the light of Article 4, 5, 8, 25 and 63 of the Constitution. All privileges of convicts on parole should also be withdrawn, the petition added.
After praying to the court for the aforesaid steps, Syed Muhammad Iqbal requested the court to issue some direction for his safety, saying that he was beleaguered earlier for filing petitions against target killing and May 12, 2007 incident of Karachi.
Referring to Article 248 of the Constitution (Protection to President and Governors), the petition said that the Constitution had provided indemnity to the President and Governors from civil cases/proceedings. "However, there is no indemnity for the criminal cases and no mention of already pending cases," he added.
The petitioner contended that Article 63 of the Constitution (disqualification for members of the parliament) as applicable to the President as for the members of the parliament. It is to be noted that while striking down the NRO, the apex court directed the government to contact Swiss authorities for revival of Mutual Legal Assistance as withdrawal of the cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in Switzerland, ordered by former Attorney General Malik Qayyum, was illegal, unconstitutional and unauthorised.