Govt files review petition against NRO verdict
Local Sunday, January 17th, 2010As the detailed judgment on the NRO case is still awaited. the Federal government has filed a review petition against the short order of the Supreme Court declaring National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as void ab initio and ultra vires of the Constitution.
In its verdict the supreme court had ordered the reopening of criminal and corruption cases against politicians and bureaucrats who had benefited from the ordinance.
The court was pleaded to hear the viewpoint of the government on the orders regarding Swiss cases and re-opening of the closed cases.
Besides the government, a number of writ petitions have also been filed with the Supreme Court seeking clarification of certain legal points of its December 16, 2009 landmark verdict declaring National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as null and void. The federation through Advocate on Record Raja Abdul Ghafoor filed a review petition over 11 aspects of the short order of the Supreme Court.
The Federation has requested the Court to review certain orders/findings in the short order including the order regarding revival of (request, claims, status) of foreign cases.
The petition said that a review in Khan Asfandyar Wali Khan’s case over the same issue had not been decided and pending with the apex Court, and two views by the Court over the same matter contradict each other and required settlement.
Another writ was filed by Malik Abdul Qayyum, former Attorney General. Through his counsel Wasim Sajjad, Malik prayed to the court that observations and orders passed against him in the short order of December 16 be deleted.
The apex Court’s verdict on NRO reopened a number of criminal and corruption cases which were abolished under NRO.
An appeal was also filed on the part of NAB Chairman Naveed Ahsan and Additional Prosecutor General Abdul Baseer Qureshi for review of the NRO verdict. The NAB requested the court to delete the remarks in the NRO case verdict against the NAB and its high officials. The apex court in its remarks in NRO case verdict had held that the NAB tried to mislead the court. January 16 was the declared deadline for filing a review petition to challenge the court’s verdict.
On December 16, the 17-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary had declared NRO as null and void and unconstitutional.
The detailed judgment in the NRO case is still awaited.
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on Jan 17 2010. Filed under