Had no role in forming National Reconciliation Ordinance, Zardari informs SC

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ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday submitted his response to the Supreme Court in the NRO case, stressing he had no role in forming the law. 

The National Reconciliation Order (NRO), passed by former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in 2007, granted amnesty to politicians and other individuals by quashing various corruption and criminal cases against them.

Zardari informed the court that cases against him were taken back in 2007 in compliance with NRO, however, they had reopened after NRO was overruled. Zardari was acquited from criminal cases, the response stated.  

Moreover, the former president said that allegations of looting or damaging the national exchequer could not be proven. 

Zardari contended that he political rivals had created false cases against him. He further said that the intention behind levelling allegations against him was to malign his reputation and his party. 

In the previous hearing, on June 6, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to Musharraf.

The case 

Nominating Musharraf, former president Asif Ali Zardari and former attorney general Malik Abdul Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had requested the court to order recovery of ‘huge amounts of public money’ misappropriated and wasted by them 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of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were ‘arbitrarily withdrawn’ causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.