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Thursday, August 09, 2012
SC pleaded to review its order on Swiss letterISLAMABAD: The federal government on Wednesday filed a review petition against the July 12 order of the Supreme Court in the NRO implementation case, pleading the court to set aside its order in which the prime minister was directed to write a letter to Swiss authorities regarding reopening of cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The petition was filed on behalf of the government by Attorney General Irfan Qadir. According to the review petition, the PM had not received any advice to write the letter, adding that he was not bound to write the letter. The petition further said the Supreme Court’s June 27 and July 12 orders in this case were unlawful and if the letter had been written, it would have violated Article 248 of constitution. Another argument made in the review petition was that if the court itself could not write the letter to Swiss authorities, why was it expecting the PM to do so. “The PM of Pakistan by virtue of his oath is bound to preserve and protect the constitution and he is under a constitutional obligation to disregard any order of the court which negates the constitution or law,” the counsel argued. The petition maintained that the main judgement in the NRO case was recorded by a 17-member bench and it could not be implemented by a seven-member bench. It further added that former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani was convicted by following the second option specified by the apex court. “Therefore, option No 2 has exhausted and could not apply as it had already been exercised against the then PM Yousaf Raza Gilani.” It maintained that the issue of implementing para 178 – to write a letter to Swiss authorities – no longer arose in respect of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf as the court had already punished one premier for contempt. The petition further stated that the PM was bound to act upon the advice given by the federal cabinet and he had not received any such advice from his cabinet to implement para 178 of the judgement. It added that in the NRO case, over 8,000 persons were not heard and thus this was the only case of its kind in the judicial history of the world. The petition argued that the legal errors in the apex court order of July 12 required to be revisited, and pleaded the court to set aside or recall this order. The Supreme Court had on July 12 ordered Raja to submit a compliance report by July 25, which was not submitted. The court then set August 8 as the deadline for Raja to implement its order by writing the letter to Swiss authorities. staff report
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk