Final episode?: NRO saga enters climax

Apex court expected to announce final verdict today.

ISLAMABAD:

All eyes will be at the Supreme Court on Monday (today), where the two-year-long National Reconciliation Ordinance saga is expected to climax.

The hype reached a fever pitch on January 10 when a bench chaired by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa gave six options against the government for non-compliance in the NRO implementation case, including disqualification for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari.

“Prima facie, the Prime Minister is not an honest man and violated his oath,” the bench had ruled.

A seven-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed will take up the matter today, and is expected to deliver its final verdict.

If the NRO saga is not sufficient, a three-member judicial commission will also resume hearing of the Memogate scandal on Monday while the National Assembly will vote on a ‘pro-democracy’ resolution.

What to expect

“It is neither appropriate nor possible to predict the decision of court but it can be said for sure that the court has to take a decision,” former law minister Senator SM Zafar said while talking to The Express Tribune. “Otherwise, people would think that the court perhaps is shying away from taking any final decision,” he added.

Zafar ruled out the possibility that the government would succeed in buying time once again: “A final decision will definitely come in the next day or two, irrespective of what the government desires.”

He added, however, that the court order, whatever it would be, would not dislodge the government, but will “definitely damage its credibility.”

When asked if the court could invoke Article 190 of the Constitution to get its judgment implemented, Zafar said “the court knows better what to do and how to do it.”

Rumor mill

Rumors, meanwhile, are rife in the capital, ranging from the prime minister’s resignation, to the government writing to Swiss authorities to revive money-laundering cases against the president.

The opposition, meanwhile, is all set to resist any move by the government against the judiciary.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz proposed amendments in a resolution tabled by the government, and asked for “immediate implementation of Supreme Court orders.”

The Pakistan Threek-e-Insaf also threw its weight behind the judiciary, and warned the government to resist any “moves against the rule of law.”

Insiders from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) say the prime minister might surprise everyone with an appearance before the seven-member bench of Supreme Court, along with his Cabinet members.

A PPP leader also claimed that a letter has already been written to the Swiss authorities and its reply has been received.

Contrary to the claim, however, President Zardari recently stated in an interview that there is no possibility of writing a letter to Swiss authorities, saying it would be a violation of the Constitution, since Article 248 gives him immunity, and be a “trial of [former prime minister] Benazir Bhutto’s grave.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2012.