SC hears NRO case today

ISLAMABAD: A five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa will take up the NRO implementation case on Wednesday (today).

During the last hearing on July 25th, the court threw the ball in Attorney General’s court and advised him to find some solution.

However, court made it clear to him that the letter should be written to the Swiss authorities.

“We trust that the gap between the stated positions of two institutions is not impossible to bridge and we wish him (AG) well in his endeavour to resolve the pending issue,” said Justice Khosa hearing the NRO implementation on July 25th.

Two weeks were given to the Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to write letter to the Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and others.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir told that he would try his level best to find out midway to resolve the issue as clash between the institutions is not in the benefit of anybody.

When asked that after the striking down of Contempt of Court Act 2012 the mood of the court would be different from the last hearing. The AGP said: “The striking down of Contempt of Court Act 2012 has nothing to with the NRO implementation case, as both the cases are of different nature.”

Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek in a TV programme has stated that Attorney General would tell the court that President Asif Ali Zardari has immunity under customary and international law as long as he is the President of the country. He said that immunity was granted to many head of states.

The sources have shared that the government may file review petition against June 26th and July 12th orders and also the NRO judgment to revisit the case.

The Federation had filed the review on July 24th, but the Registrar SC returned it with objections. After that the Federation did not press it.

The sources said that the government may file the review petition on Wednesday (today) and pray to the court to give sometime as they have filed the review petition.