SC quashes NRO case against Zardari, Musharraf and Qayyum

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday closed the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case against Pervez Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari and former attorney general Justice (retd) Malik Mohammad Qayyum.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the case related to National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), passed by Musharraf in 2007.

In April last year, nominating Musharraf, Zardari and Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had requested the court to order recovery of ‘huge amounts of public money’ misappropriated and wasted by them through unlawful means “already on record in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court”.

He had contended that Musharraf subverted the Constitution by declaring emergency followed by the promulgation of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were “arbitrarily withdrawn”.

In August last year while hearing the petition, the court had issued notices to Musharraf and Zardari and sought a 10-year record of the assets and foreign and local bank accounts owned by them.

During today’s hearing, the chief justice remarked, “We have received the asset details of Zardari, Musharraf and Qayyum.”

Justice Nisar then inquired about the whereabouts of petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani and his counsel informed that he is ill. “The court had issued notices to respondents,” the chief justice said.

“The law will pave its own way,” he further said. The court then wrapped up Feroz Shah’s petition against Musharraf, Zardari and Qayyum.