SC winds up petition against Zardari, Musharraf in NRO case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a petition seeking to reopen the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case against Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, erstwhile President Pervez Musharraf and former attorney general Malik Abdul Qayyum.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing the petition filed by Feroz Shah Gillani seeking directives for authorities to recover huge amount of public money squandered by the aforementioned respondents through the NRO in 2007.

At the on-set of the hearing, the chief justice questioned the petitioner’s whereabouts. “My client couldn’t show up owing to low blood pressure,” said the petitioner’s counsel, requesting the court to adjourn the case for 15 days.

“This is not a public interest litigation. We wrap this up,” the top adjudicator remarked, adding that  all the respondents had already furnished their replies along with the details of their assets in the court.

Naming Musharraf, Zardari and Qayyum as respondents in the petition, Gillani pleaded to the apex court to order the recovery of the allegedly embezzled public money through unlawful means.

The petitioner said the former military ruler was responsible for subverting the Constitution and promulgating the NRO through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians were arbitrarily withdrawn causing massive financial losses to the national exchequer.