No immunity in Asif Ali Zardari NRO cases

SC orders reopening of all cases; Zardari himself to approach courts to claim immunity.The Supreme Court’s detailed judgment on the NRO has deprived President Asif Ali Zardari of the immunity. That he was supposed to have enjoyed.

Now, the president will have to persuade the court if he seeks immunity.

The judgment issued on Tuesday does not discuss President Asif Ali Zardari, but like other accused all his corruption cases, both within Pakistan and outside, stand reopened. Now the onus would be on the president and his legal eagles to argue before the courts to prove that Zardari enjoys legal or constitutional “immunity” or “exemption”, so he could not be tried under any criminal offence during his term of office. Since presidential immunity was not discussed in the NRO case, so the judgment did not discuss it either. However, the judgment talks about the revival of the pre-Oct 2007 situation without any exception and exemption.

The judgment orders the reopening of “all” the cases, both within Pakistan and outside, closed under the NRO. “From the day of its promulgation ie October 5 2007 as a consequence whereof 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 accused persons, are also declared never to have existed in the eyes of law and resultantly of no legal effect,” said the judgment, adding: “All cases in which the accused persons were either discharged or acquitted under section 2 of the NRO, 2007 or where proceedings pending against the holders of public office had got terminated in view of Section 7 thereof, a list of which cases has been furnished to this court and any other such cases/proceedings which may not have been brought to the notice of this court, shall stand revived and relegated to the status of pre-5th of October, 2007 position.”

The Supreme Court judgment ordered yet again “all” the concerned courts, including the trial, the appellate and the revision 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, 2007. There is no mention of exemption or immunity for anyone.

Instead, the federal government, all the provincial governments and all relevant and competent authorities, including the prosecutor general of NAB, the special prosecutors in various accountability courts, the prosecutors general in the four provinces and other officers or officials involved in the prosecution of criminal offenders are directed to offer every possible assistance required by the competent courts in the said connection.

Similarly, yet again without talking of any immunity, “all” cases which were under investigation and which had either been withdrawn or where the investigations or enquiries had been terminated on account of the NRO, 2007 shall also stand revived and the relevant and competent authorities shall proceed in the said matters in accordance with the law.

The judgment also made it clear that it will not take into account extraneous considerations while exercising its judicial powers and also that adherence to the constitution can never lead to “destabilisation of the rule of law”. “On the contrary, any breach of constitutional norms is likely to destabilise the rule of law,” the judgment said, adding: “The onus, therefore, of stabilising the rule of law falls on and must be assumed by the executive organ of the state which also commands a majority in the legislature.”

The SC admitted that there is, of course, the matter of persons who may be innocent of any wrongdoing but were victimised due to political vendetta. “For such persons this judgment ought to be seen as a boon. Instead of living in the shadow of a malignant cloud for the rest of their lives, their reputations sullied by the foul intervention of a scheming mind, these persons are enabled through this judgment to clear their good name of any taint with which they, of necessity, stood branded on account of the NRO. This indeed would be the most potent rejoinder to those who maliciously may have initiated false cases to harm their reputations for ulterior political considerations.” Ansar Abassi

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on Jan 20 2010. Filed under Editorials, Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry