Pakistan hires lawyers to re-open Swiss cases

LONDON: The government of Pakistan has hired lawyers in Switzerland to find ways of reopening the Swiss cases, it is learnt. Sources familiar with the Swiss cases development told The News on Wednesday that the Pakistan government has asked its embassy in Bern, Switzerland, to hire lawyers to revisit the files and find waysof re-opening the cases. The instructions to the embassy were given last week, a source in Pakistan told this correspondent. The Swiss prosecutors have refused to reopen the probe.
A source in Pakistan embassy in Bern confirmed that a team of lawyers has been hired but refused to reveal the name of the law firm now acting on behalf of Pakistan government. It can be confirmed that the lawyers are already going through the files and preparing to take up Pakistan’s case with the Swiss prosecutors in near future.
Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif repeatedly promised in the last five years that they would take steps to bring back Pakistan’s “looted wealth”. Now in power at the centre and in the biggest province of Pakistan, the PML-N leadership is already under pressure from media and the public to fulfill the promise. If Nawaz Sharif fails to get the cases re-opened then his rivals like Imran Khan will assert that it was due to “muk mukka” that has prevented the reopening of the cases.
Several options exist before Pakistan to re-open the dormant cases. These cases were dropped by Pakistan under Pervez Musharraf after the infamous National Reconciliation Order (NRO) was signed.
Switzerland had enacted in 2011 a new federal legislation for the return of ill-gotten wealth. This legislation is aimed at returning identified assets to the damaged state despite the fact that the damaged state, for internal reasons, is not in a position to finalise the penal proceedings against the offenders. The alleged amount is in Switzerland at the moment making it difficult for Pakistan to issue a confiscation order regarding the allegedly ill-gotten wealth. Pakistan can ask the Swiss government that being the damaged state, it should be given control of the assets. The News has learnt that Pakistani lawyers in Switzerland have been asked by Pakistani lawyers to invoke the 2011 law and ask the Swiss government to return the assets to the requesting State - Pakistan, in this case.
After Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued decision about the NRO and disqualified prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in April 2012, it could be argued that Pakistan’s withdrawal was flawed as it was not made in accordance with the Constitution and the law of Pakistan. Despite the insistence of the Swiss prosecutor that the cases will not be reopened now, Pakistan can argue that the PPP government’s refusal to open the cases and withdrawing from the proceedings in 2008 was not made in good faith.
Pakistan has two more options available in addition to the 2011 Swiss law. It can ask the Swiss authorities to reactivate their own penal cases, particularly regarding the money laundering acts committed after Pakistan withdrew from the Swiss penal proceedings. The third option is to ask the Swiss authorities to reactivate the mutual legal assistance proceedings. This means that Pakistan could initiate a penal investigation within the country and ask Switzerland to cooperate. Pakistan can then finalise its penal proceedings, sentence the offenders and confiscate their ill-gotten wealth and ask Switzerland to transfer the concerned assets to Pakistan.
In nutshell, all Pakistan needs to do is it to show its seriousness about re-opening the cases and explore various options available to it.