ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan granted a four-day reprieve to Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for revising the draft of a letter to be written to the Swiss authorities as per the court’s instructions, Express News reported on Friday.
The revised draft, submitted by Law Minister Farooq H Naek in today’s hearing of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case, was reviewed by the five-member bench in the judges’ chambers.
According to Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the first two paragraphs of the draft were as per the court’s directives but the judges had some reservations over the last paragraph.
Law Minister Naek, agreeing with the court, requested 15 minutes to discuss with the judges their reservations, which was approved by the bench.
When the case resumed, Naek requested the court to give till October 10 for revising the draft, which was approved by the court.
Earlier, the court had set today as the deadline for the Swiss letter but agreed to give more time to since there had been progress in the writing of the letter.
Naek, speaking to the media after the hearing, said that the case was related to democracy and the incumbent government had made sacrifices to bring the same into action.
“Our President Asif Ali Zardari stayed away from his children, his wife,” said Naek adding that he was not convicted in even one case.
“Who will bring back those 12 years when he couldn’t meet his children?” asked the law minister.
Naek has already presented two drafts, both of which were rejected by the judges because they did not comply with court orders.
Last month, a breakthrough on the long-standing issue was seemingly achieved when the government agreed to write the letter to Swiss authorities regarding graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
The Supreme Court has twice rejected the drafts as unsatisfactory, and had given Naek till October 5 (today) to get the draft right – or risk the restarting of proceedings against the prime minister.
COMMENTS (11)
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The amount of time, energy and attention the issue of letter has consumed over the last few years, arguably making it even more difficult for the government to function normally and tackle the enormous challenges the country faces, certainly has not helped. The threat of destabilisation of the democratic system has loomed more than once during these hearings. The best solution of course would be, as Justice Khosa put it, an agreement between the government and the court on the content and wording of the letter that leads to a closure of this debilitating ‘confrontation’ between the executive and the judiciary. That, however, still seems more hope than reality at this point.
When will the PCO Supreme Court show urgency in #hudaibiyagate and #asgarkhangate
Haha, this case should be refferred to in the law books as people vs time or, procrastination vs delay or, distraction vs reality or, now vs March 2013
well done SC and Govt, please keep us amused
Supreme court is hearing so many other cases as well but our media is just focusing on this issue which in turn is making the people think/talk negative about SC
Running the affairs of the country is a serious business. The only thing serious about the current government has been its 'non seriousness'..........and now people are forced to have similar opinion about the judiciary as well.
The Americans have a name for the type of strategy being used by the PPP, its called filibuster and the PPP have used it against the Supreme Court with excellent results.........so far.
Nothing will happen on 10 Oct. Judiciary has helped PPPPPPP to complete its 5 year term of corruption and will always help them to continue in the name of Justice.
SC please stop the drama the president is a convicted; as per constitution he can not hold any public position. Same goes for PM he has pending cases in NAB and he holding top executive position.
The government's intentions are pretty clear from day 1. They want to waste as much time as possible and get a reprieve under Swiss Law of Limitation, even if the letter is eventually written.
wow didn't see that one coming facepalm