Pakistan To Reopen
Corruption Case
The
Supreme Court in Pakistan is exerting pressure on an
anti-corruption body to reopen a graft case against President
Asif Ali Zardari.
The chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, Naveed Ahsan,
arrived at the court with his lawyers after being given
twenty-four hours to implement a ruling against corruption
allegedly perpetrated by numerous officials.
The Demand
The court demanded the return of millions of dollars plundered
by leaders and bureaucrats, as well as action against former
attorney general Malik Qayyum and an increase in the number of
anti-graft courts to speedily resolve cases.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry grilled
Ahsan over efforts to recover sixty million dollars believed to
have been stashed in foreign bank accounts by Zardari and
others.
Chaudhry requested that Ahsan should give an undertaking that
the money would be returned to Pakistan by Thursday.
Immunity Clause
Last December, the Supreme Court ordered that hundreds of old
cases be reopened after scrapping a controversial 2007 amnesty,
which had protected Zardari and other politicians from possible
court proceedings.
Zardari is immune from prosecution while in office but pressure
has mounted against the government to reopen cases pending in
Pakistan and abroad.
Pakistan is ranked the world's 40th most corrupt country by
global watchdog Transparency International and many governments
have fallen as a result of military intervention over
accusations of graft.
Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf passed the
so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in 2007 under
pressure to hold elections and end about eight years of military
rule.
AFP/Williams/Yinka
