No trace of Swiss money, SC told

NAB submits report to the Supreme Court claiming there is no trace of money in Swiss accounts.

Newly-appointed National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah on Tuesday submitted his first report about implementation of the NRO verdict in the Supreme Court.

The report, which was not made public, claims that there is no trace of money of President Asif Ali Zardari in the Swiss accounts, nor is the anti-graft body aware of the status of his cases in Madrid and London. The report says that former attorney general Malik Qayyum only once wrote a letter to the Swiss authorities for the closure of graft cases but the authorities in Madrid and London themselves closed the cases. However, the forum concerned has been approached to initiate proceedings against Malik Qayyum.

The report claimed that all the NAB cases have been reopened right from the stage they were closed at after the proclamation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in 2007.

A 17-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will resume hearing of both the cases on Wednesday (today).

Showing leniency, the court had earlier given time to the government to file a review petition, despite the matter being time-barred. Government attorney Kamal Azfar later requested the court for leave of absence whereupon the apex court fixed the case hearing on October 13 and constituted a 17-member larger bench.

However, upon Kamal Azfar’s return home, the government continued dithering over the issue and appointed Azfar adviser to the PM, a move the apex court rejected on Monday.

During the last hearing of the NRO implementation case, the apex court had directed the NAB authorities to present a para-wise implementation report which the new NAB chairman submitted but not fully in line with the court’s direction.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2010.

Barrister Iftikhar Ahmad has written a three-part in-depth analyses of the Swiss cases for the Express Tribune which can be viewed here, here and here.