By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: “The knocking down of the highly contentious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) by the apex court could possibly jeopardise the position of Asif Ali Zardari as the President of Pakistan besides reviving all the corruption and criminal cases disposed of so far by the judiciary on the basis of this legislation,” former Attorney General Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum said.
Talking to The News here on Thursday, Malik Qayyum endorsed the recent observation made by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in which the top judge of the country had said that nobody could be granted relief under the NRO till the petitions challenging its legality were adjudicated.
“No one could be given relief under the NRO during the pendency of the petitions challenging it,” Malik Qayyum said, adding that former Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar though passed an interim order to provide benefit to some under the NRO but he did not decide the petitions.
It means, he explained, the issue of the NRO is still alive and all those who have benefited from it would revert to the pre-NRO position in case the apex court knocks down the legislation.
Under the principle of lis pendens, (a Latin term for suit pending) he said, the relief given to any party is always connected to the final outcome of the case pending before any court of law. The cases disposed of by the force of the NRO, Qayyum said, are not past and closed transactions as the apex court has yet to decide the matter pending before it.
Though there are so many beneficiaries of this highly controversial legislation that was introduced by General Musharraf as part of a deal between him and the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, the most prominent one among them in the present situation is President Asif Ali Zardari.
According to Malik Qayyum, in case the NRO is declared null and void by the Supreme Court, it could possibly jeopardise the position of Zardari as the president of Pakistan. He said in case of any previous conviction not only his very qualification to become the president of Pakistan could be questioned but even otherwise the constitutional immunity that he enjoys while being the head of the state does not protect him from all sort of cases.
Qayyum explained that the constitutional immunity protects the president only during his term in office and secondly, such an immunity is only restricted to the criminal cases and does not apply on all types of cases.
MIDTERM ELECTON?
