ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday disposed of a petition against former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf , former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and former attorney general Justice (retd) Malik Mohammad Qayyum, seeking recovery of losses following promulgation of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
According to the TV channel, a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the case pertaining to the NRO, a controversial ordinance issued by Musharraf in 2007.
Under the NRO cases against many politicians, political workers and bureaucrats were withdrawn.
In 2009, however, a 17-member larger bench of the apex court headed by the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared the NRO 2007 as a whole, particularly its sections 2, 6 and 7, as void ab initio being ultra vires and violative of articles 4, 8, 12, 13, 25, 62(f), 63(1)(h), 63(1)(p), 89, 175, 227 of the Constitution.
In April last year, nominating Musharraf, Zardari and Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had prayed the apex court to issue orders to recover huge amounts of public money misappropriated and wasted by the respondents including former president Pervez Musharraf, former attorney general Malik Qayyum and former president Asif Ali Zardari through unlawful means “already on record in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court.”
He had contended that Musharraf subverted the Constitution by declaring emergency followed by the promulgation of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were “arbitrarily withdrawn”.
In August last year while hearing the petition, the court had issued notices to Musharraf and Zardari and sought a 10-year record of the assets and foreign and local bank accounts owned by them.
Quoting the Chief Justice, Geo TV reported the Supreme Court has received the asset details of Zardari, Musharraf and Qayyum.
The petitioner was not present in the court as his lawyer told the CJ that he was ill.
"The court had issued notices to respondents,". The law will take its course," Geo News quoted the CJ as saying.
It also reported that the court wrapped up Feroz Shah's petition against Musharraf, Zardari and Qayyum.