The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Attorney General of Pakistan to move his application seeking delay in implementation of court decision on National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) before the 17-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
A five-member bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk passed the order while hearing a suo motu notice taken by the court on non-implementation of NRO decision announced by the court on December 16, 2009. The court adjourned the matter for two weeks and fixed the case for July 26 for hearing.
Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq appeared before the court and pressed his application seeking a court order to defer the implementation of NRO decision till a decision on the federation's review petition on the same is made.
On last hearing of the case, the bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Tariq Pervaz had directed the Law Ministry to send a new summary regarding reopening of Swiss cases (that implicate President Asif Ali Zardari) to the Prime Minister. Otherwise, the court had ruled, Law Secretary would be required to appear before the court.
During the course of proceedings, Justice Nasirul Mulk observed that para 178 of the detailed judgement on NRO (regarding reopening of Swiss cases) was not under review. "However, we would give you ample time to address all issues," he added.
Para 178 of the detailed judgement on NRO reads, "Since the NRO, 2007 stands declared void ab initio, therefore, any actions taken or suffered under the said law are also non est in law and since the communications addressed by Malik Muhammad Qayyum to various foreign fora/authorities/courts withdrawing the requests earlier made by the Government of Pakistan for mutual legal assistance; surrendering the status of civil party; abandoning the claims to the allegedly laundered moneys lying in foreign countries including Switzerland, have also been declared by us to be unauthorised and illegal communications and consequently of no legal effect, therefore, it is declared that the initial requests for mutual legal assistance; securing the status of civil party and the claims lodged to the allegedly laundered moneys lying in foreign countries including Switzerland are declared never to have been withdrawn. Therefore the Federal Government and other concerned authorities are ordered to take immediate steps to seek revival of the said requests, claims and status".
Earlier, on July 5, a 17-member bench had allowed Barrister Kamal Azfar, counsel for the federation to press federation's petition seeking review of NRO judgement when he filed a rectified version of the review petition.
The amended review petition of the federation had said that the Supreme Court had failed to take note of the preamble to the NRO which makes it abundantly clear that the purpose of the NRO through its various sections was to promote national reconciliation and that the desired purpose was achieved. Similarly, the court also did not take into consideration the peculiar circumstances, under which the NRO was promulgated to ensure the restoration of democracy after many years of the rule of a military dictator who had perpetuated his rule by forcing leader of the main political parties of Pakistan ie PPP and PML-N in exile along with the dictator's crude attack on judiciary, said the petition.