SC takes up contempt petition against PM on Wednesday

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will take up contempt of court case against Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday (March 4, 2015) for non-implementation of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) judgment. The case (no. Crl. O.P.112/2014 (Contempt of Court Matters/Disobedience of court Matters) will be heard by Bench Number 2 comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan.
The contempt petition seeks reopening of corruption references against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his cronies, which were closed as a result of NRO but were never restored even after the abolishment of the ordinance as the persons concerned gave weight to some legal opinions instead of the judgment. It is worth mentioning here that ex-PM Yusuf Raza Gilani was also sent home by the SC in a contempt case for non-implementation of NRO judgment.
The petition says that in this connection it is relevant to mention that On Site Inspection Report of the State Bank of Pakistan on the accounts of NBP contained important information disclosing non-compliance of the NRO judgment wherein the respondents acted either collusively or negligently to thwart compliance of the SC judgment and allowed to retain benefits to different persons which had been declared otherwise illegal and void ab initio after the NRO was declared void ab initio. Following industries business concerns are among the beneficiaries as per State Bank’s on site inspection report: Abbas Engineering Industries Limited; Abbas Steel Industries (pvt) Ltd; Al-Abbas Steel (pvt) Limited; Ansari Sugar Mills Ltd and Sakrand Sugar Mills Ltd.
That in the case of above said industries/business concerns the NBP allowed loan settlement in violation of orders/directions in the NRO judgment on the basis of some legal opinions which had been given importance while ignoring the order/directions of the apex court to which all matters were to be brought back at the stages where those were before the promulgation of NRO.
The petition says that it is the duty of the respondents including the prime minister to monitor compliance of the judgments of the Supreme Court but due to unknown reasons the respondents have not acted as per requirements of the NRO judgment and due to such reasons the public exchequer through different state-owned entities and banks had suffered losses worth hundreds of millions of rupees which no conscientious and vigilant citizen can tolerate at any cost and the same is still going on with the change of office-holders including the present alleged contemnors.