NRO Case: Apex court orders Musharraf, Zardari to submit foreign assets details
- By Web Desk -
- Jul 04, 2018
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and General (retd) Pervez Musharraf to submit details of their foreign assets in National Reconciliation Order (NRO) case.
The three-member bench — comprising the chief justice, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan — was hearing a petition pertaining to persons benefiting due to NRO.
As the hearing went underway, the apex court summoned the details of foreign assets owned by all the respondents of the case including Asif Ali Zardari, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and former attorney general Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum.
The top judge warned that those bigheads who think they will not be caught will be exposed and apprehended. “What is the issue in taking the Supreme Court into confidence about their [respondents] foreign assets?” the chief justice asked.
The top court ordered all respondents to submit their affidavits declaring the details regarding their foreign bank accounts, offshore companies and those of their children as well.
The Supreme court granted Musharraf two weeks to submit his reply in the case.
On June 24, Asif Ali Zardari had submitted his response in NRO case and stressed before the Supreme Court that he had not played any role in the making of the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman stated in his answer that in 2007, the permission to withdraw cases against him was granted under NRO, however cases were reopened after the court overruled the law.
Zardari’s response asserted that he was acquitted in criminal cases by the court, whereas the allegations of looting or damaging the national exchequer were also not proven against him.
The case
Petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani filed a petition in the Supreme Court nominating Pervez Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari and former attorney general Malik Abdul Qayyum as respondents in the case.
The petitioner appealed that apex court should recover ‘huge amount of public money’ embezzled by the respondents through unlawful means ‘already on record in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court’.
The petition held Musharraf accountable for subverting the Constitution and promulgating of the NRO through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians were ‘arbitrarily withdrawn’ causing massive financial losses to the national exchequer.