ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to provide a complete list of individuals who had enjoyed immunity under the National Reconciliation Ordinance as it began hearing petitions against the amnesty that had protected President Asif Ali Zardari and key allies from graft charges.
The 17-member bench in Islamabad started hearing petitions filed by former Finance Minister Mubashir Hassan, former Secretary of Interior Roedad Khan and former President of Jamat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry asked for a complete list of beneficiaries and summoned the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, an anti-corruption body formed under Musharraf, to bring a record of the cases, said Supreme Court spokesman Shahid Hussain Kamayo.
The petitioners claimed that the amnesty list included more than 8,000 people. They said it was unjust to help so many politicians escape prosecution for alleged wrongdoing.
“We cannot allow criminals, plunderers, looters and corrupt politicians to get away with crimes against the nation,” Qazi Hussain Ahmad told reporters after Monday’s hearing.
Mubashir Hassan said all involved in corruption cases should be fairly tried and jailed if convicted regardless of political affiliation. “It is time to begin an operation to clean up Pakistan,” he said. “The ruling class ... should be swept away so that a new era can begin.”
Zardari, who has denied a slew of corruption claims against him, enjoys general immunity from prosecution as president, but the Supreme Court could choose to challenge his eligibility for the post if the amnesty is declared illegal.
The session came two weeks after the expiration of the amnesty, which had been granted in a US-backed deal by Musharraf to allow Zardari’s late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to return from exile in 2007 and run for office safe in the knowledge she would not be dogged by corruption allegations that had forced her from office twice in the 1990s. — With input from agencies
