Daily Times

Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the 2007 National Reconciliation Order (NRO) was promulgated “to make the election process transparent and end political victimisation in the country”.

In his response submitted to the top court through his counsel, the former military ruler said that the NRO was not enacted with ill intentions, and was completely legal.

The reply also sought to dismiss the petition.

The NRO, passed by Musharraf in 2007, granted amnesty to politicians and other individuals by quashing various corruption and criminal cases against them so they could return to the country and engage in the democratic process.

On July 4, the apex court had summoned details of foreign assets of former president Asif Ali Zardari and Musharraf.

The court directed the respondents, which included former attorney general Justice (r) Malik Qayyum, to submit affidavits in court, along with details of their personal foreign assets, those of their children, foreign bank accounts and any offshore companies.

Last month, former president Zardari submitted his response to the Supreme Court in the NRO case, stressing he had no role in forming the controversial law.

Zardari told the court that cases against him were quashed in 2007 in compliance with NRO, however, they were reopened after the NRO was overruled by the apex court.

Zardari was acquitted of criminal cases in their subsequent trials, the response stated further.

Nominating Musharraf, Zardari and former attorney general Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had requested the court in April this year to order recovery of ‘huge amounts of public money’ misappropriated and wasted by them through unlawful means ‘already on record in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court’.

He had contended that Musharraf abrogated the constitution by declaring emergency followed by the promulgation of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were “arbitrarily withdrawn” causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

Published in Daily Times, July 11^th 2018.