What will be next?

What will be next?

The Supreme Court, back in December 2009, corrected a historic wrong, declaring not only the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) null and void but that all cases under the decree were still open, most significantly, the cases against the sitting president,
Asif Ali Zardari.

In a recent move, the apex court has also dismissed the NRO review petition filed by the government, increasing the burden over the government to implement the SC’s original decision.

Releasing the detail judgement on the NRO review appeal, the court asked a question why the petition was filed when neither the government nor the parliament given approval to the ordinance as a law.

It further questioned that what the federation wanted from the court, when both, the parliament and the government, did not oppose the revival of criminal cases under the NRO. The representative of the federation failed to provide any satisfactory answer
to this.

What can one expect from the PPP-led government in the coming days? If we keep in the mind the previous experiences, the reply will not be positive.

The incumbent always used delaying tactics toward the NRO proceedings to avoid the consequences. By sucking the court into a debilitating series of worthless fights, it only wanted to gain more and more time.  

The apex court, patiently, used every mode to get the government to implement the NRO verdict, but to no avail. The Supreme Court, in writing, categorically asked the government to write a letter to Switzerland, asking her to open the cases against Asif
Ali Zardari.

In expected moves, the government used every possible way through a number of irritating hearings to avoid writing a letter to the Swiss authorities. It even made an excuse that the file had gone missing, which was absurdly enough for everyone to understand
the reality.

Ultimately, the court allowed review proceedings, but the government repeated the same delaying tactics, aiming to waste the time. It attempted to change the lawyer, which the apex court discarded.

In chorus, the government also attempted to pressurise the bureaucrats responsible to execute the court’s verdicts. It is clear for everyone that the government was not serious in giving the arguments in the court; it was only trying to gain more time.

This is what how the government treated the case before the apex court. Its deliberate misuse of the public authority cannot be permitted to go on. The Supreme Court has expressed enough tolerance, but now the government will have to implement over the court’s
orders.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Dec 10 2011. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry