Review petition: NRO battle remains undecided after a year

Federation’s appeal is still pending in the apex court.

ISLAMABAD: The battle between the Supreme Court and the government is still continuing over the implementation of the judgment of the 17-member bench of the apex court against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) when it declared the law “Void ab Initio” with no legal effects on December 16 last year.

The law was promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007.

However, Dr Mubashir Hassan, a former finance minster, and others, including PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif and Jamaat-i-Islami’s Qazi Hussain Ahmad, challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance in the Supreme Court soon after its promulgation. The court took up the matter on October 12, 2007.

On November 3, 2007, the former president proclaimed emergency and issued the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).

On the same evening, a seven-member bench of the apex court declared the proclamation of emergency illegal and issued a restraining order, barring judges from taking oath under the PCO. The Supreme Court chief justice was put under house arrest along with other like-minded judges and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and his allied judges were sworn in.

After the restoration of the judiciary in March 2009, the Supreme Court took up a petition of the Sindh High Court Bar Association versus Federation of Pakistan on July 31 of the same year, declaring all steps taken on November 3 ‘void ab initio’, including oaths of judges, but the court referred the NRO and other ordinances to parliament for validation, while adhering to the doctrine of constitutional trichotomy.

The National Assembly, however, withdrew ordinances issued by the former president, including the NRO.

Meanwhile, Qazi Hussain Ahmed filed a petition, seeking NRO to be declared in violation of the Constitution.

The court issued notices to respondents in the petition. However the federation did not put up defence of NRO. All representatives of the federation, including the acting Attorney-General Shah Khawar and state’s counsel Kamal Azfar, submitted written statements in the court against NRO, helping the apex court declare the law to be faulty from its inception. The government, however, showed reluctance in implementing the apex court’s verdict.

Tariq Asad, a petitioner in the case, while talking to The Express Tribune said that, a year has passed but the verdict remains unimplemented.

When asked who is responsible for this, he replied that the executive branch was responsible for implementing the judgment but while this wasn’t implemented, the government sacrificed many of its officials, including former secretary Aqil Mirza, former NAB chief Naveed Ahsan and former attorney-general Anwar Mansur Khan, who admitted in the court that the government was not willing to implement the judgment.

“The court showed extreme leniency, allowing ample time to the government in the administration of justice,” Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood said. Justice Tariq said that the court should take a decision on the review petition as quickly as possible.

A review petition filed by the federation against the NRO verdict is still pending in the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2010.