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New AG ready to write Swiss letter if asked by SC
ISLAMABAD: New Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq has said that if the Supreme Court directly orders him to write a letter to the Swiss government for reopening of the cases of money laundering against President Asif Zardari, he will follow the Supreme Court orders.Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq made this statement to The News on Tuesday after taking several days in reading the files of the Swiss cases in the light of the Supreme Court judgment on the NRO. But the AG maintained that writing a letter was not an issue of the office of the attorney general.
“I have gone through the judgment and the court has ordered the same that this should be a formal letter written in accordance with the rules of business and you better know what it means,” Maulvi Anwar said.
When asked that in the past whenever such a letter was written to foreign governments, it was always written by the attorney general, Maulvi Anwar replied that it was not the issue that the attorney general office was not directed but the issue is they (Supreme Court) want the letter to be written in accordance with the rules of business and thus they want the letter be written by the highest authority.
It was not clear from his remarks as to which highest authority he was referring to, the president or the PM. Asked that in all legal matters the correspondences which took place in past under the mutual legal assistance under international law through the top law officer of any country which is AG in Pakistan, Maulvi Anwar replied that it was not in his knowledge.
“I myself was the deputy attorney general when the letter was first written to the Swiss government.” Maulvi Anwar admitted and added “All these cases were being handled by the chief of the then Ehtesab Bureau (Maulvi didn’t take the name of Senator Saif-ur-Rehman).”
Maulvi Anwar further said that the then head exclusively deal with these cases and he had his full team of prosecutors. “These (prosecution) people came with him from Lahore and they dealt with all issues.”
When asked that even now when the application was withdrawn and the request for mutual legal assistance was surrendered, the then attorney general Malik Qayyum visited Switzerland for the purpose. Maulvi Anwar replied that the apex court in its judgement has written that his act of visiting Switzerland for this purpose was without lawful authority.
Asked that if the Supreme Court directs him to write this letter to the Swiss government Maulvi Anwar said that it is clear that he will follow the Supreme Court orders. Anwar Mansoor Khan, the attorney general who recently resigned had also shown his willingness to write a letter to the Swiss government to implement the Supreme Court’s historic judgement on NRO, but he had to resign as according to him he was facing severe resistance from Babar Awan in implementing the apex court’s orders.
Babar Awan while talking in Geo News’s programme Capital Talk on Tuesday said that the Swiss attorney general had already stated that Swiss cases against President Asif Ali Zardari were a past and closed transaction.
Courtesy www.Geo.tv