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| Kasuri ready to defend NRO on Zardari’s behalf |
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: Barrister Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri has said he is prepared to appear on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari and defend the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in any court of law provided he is engaged as a counsel.
“Being a lawyer, I am prepared to defend any client since it is the constitutional right of any aggrieved to hire the services of a counsel,” he added. The barrister is leading the panel that will appear on behalf of former Supreme Court judge Abdul Hamid Dogar in a contempt of court case and challenge the restoration of the judges of the Supreme Court before the apex court.
He said: “I have no acquaintance with President Zardari but his father Hakim Ali Zardari had been my old and keen friend. I used to enjoy the hospitality of his father when he was residing in an apartment near Bambino Cinema in Karachi with his second wife. Asif must be a small kid during that time.”
In reply to a question, Ahmad Raza Khan Kasuri said he had charged fee for the case of Justice Dogar but he would not reveal the amount of the same. He parried a query about the powerful hidden hand working behind the agitation by Justice Dogar.
“I have no idea about it because I am contesting the case purely in a professional manner. I have charged the fee and I have become the counsel for the justice.” Kasuri was the founding member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and used to claim to be the successor of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but ultimately he became a complainant in the murder case of his father late Muhammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri.
He implicated the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the case and subsequently he took Bhutto to the gallows in the same case. “I wish to forget this chapter of my life since the good lies in burying the past and the events of the past cannot be changed,” Ahmad Raza Kasuri added.
He said he was not among those who distributed sweets publicly when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged. Kasuri said he initially planned to go to the high court for seeking relief but later decided to knock the doors of the Supreme Court under Article 183 of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, sources told The News the confrontation initiated by Justice Dogar was part of a strategy to malign the independent judiciary before it took up the case to decide the fate of the NRO.
The sources said that Justice Dogar belonged to the town where top PPP leaders also resided. The link of Justice Dogar with the PPP leaders is not a secret. “It is not a secret that Justice Dogar was inducted into the judiciary during the PPP regime at the behest of top party leaders,” they added.
Justice Dogar was offered to become Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia immediately after his retirement from the judiciary by the incumbent government but it could not materialise. The sources were of the view that the apex court would take note of the media appearance of Justice Dogar on Tuesday in Islamabad because he appeared in public on a notice that was served on him to explain before the court.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
