ISLAMABAD: Pressure mounted on Thursday for Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to resign after the country’s Supreme Court struck down an amnesty protecting him and other politicians from possible prosecution for corruption. Zardari said he would face the cases.
Following the court verdict, the National Accountability Bureau on Thursday placed the name of Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the exit control list — barring him from traveling abroad. A total of 248 people have been barred from leaving the country, said the anti-graft agency spokesman, Ghazni Khan.
He said arrest warrants against some people had been revived and some people had had their assets frozen.
Rehman Malik said he would resign if found guilty of graft charges.
The Supreme Court threw out on Wednesday the 2007 amnesty that protected Zardari and top aides from graft charges.
The ruling means all old cases covered by the amnesty, most of them corruption cases, have been revived. The court also asked the government to seek the revival of cases lodged in foreign countries.
Immediately after the court ruling, Zardari’s spokesmen said the president’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party respected the decision but there was no question of the president resigning.
The amnesty was introduced by former President Pervez Musharraf as part of a power-sharing deal brokered with Zardari’s late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, with US and British encouragement.
However, a senior leader of the main opposition party said Zardari should do the right thing and step down.
“He should quit this office in his own interest as well as in the interest of his party and the system. He can get any member of his party elected to the post,” said Khawaja Mohammad Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party.
“He will achieve the high moral ground,” he said.
Some legal experts say the danger for the president is that the legitimacy of his 2008 election as president could be challenged now that old cases against him have been revived.
Meanwhile, Pakistani security officials said suspected US drone aircraft fired seven missiles at militants in the North Waziristan region, killing 17 militants.
“Seven missiles were fired. They hit a cave complex, a compound and a vehicle,” said one of the Pakistani officials, who declined to be identified.
The United States has launched 48 drone strikes this year, killing more than 400 people, most of them militants. There were 32 such strikes last year, which killed about 240 people.
US President Barack Obama has made clear Washington had other options if Pakistan did not cooperate in fighting Afghan Taleban. Those options include increased drone attacks.
— With input from agencies
