| GEO Pakistan | | SC releases detailed ruling in NRO case | Updated at: 2111 PST, Tuesday, January 19, 2010
 ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday released the detailed judgment in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case.
The 287-page detailed ruling was penned by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The judgment was signed by Justice Khalil Ramday on Jan 12 before his retirement.
Citing the example of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the ruling said that the Philippine government had also brought the looted money by the dictator back to the country from Switzerland, which could be taken as a reference.
According to sources, the Supreme Court declared the NRO null and void, and contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan. It has also termed the controversial ordinance in contrast to the national interest and violates the several clauses of the Constitution.
It may be reminded here that the Supreme Court (SC) in its short judgment on Dec 16, 2009 had struck down the controversial NRO, saying it is null and void.
The court has said that the NRO ensured legal cover to corruption by the privileged class
In its landmark and the expected judgment, a 17-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had declared the NRO an instrument void ab initio, being ultra vires and violative of various constitutional provisions including Articles 4, 8, 25, 62(f), 63(i)(p), 89, 175 and 227 of the Constitution.
Former federal minister Dr Mubashar Hassan, former bureaucrat Roedad Khan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif had challenged the NRO before the Supreme Court in 2007.
“All steps taken, actions suffered, and all orders passed by whatever authority, any orders passed by the courts of law including the orders of discharge and acquittals recorded in favour of the accused persons, are also declared never to have existed in the eyes of law and resultantly of no legal effect,” the court had ruled in its short order read out by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The larger bench of the apex court ruled that all cases in which the accused persons were either discharged or acquitted under Section 2 of the NRO or where proceedings pending against the holders of public office had got terminated in view of Section 7 thereof, a list of which cases has been furnished to this Court and any other such cases/proceedings which may not have been brought to the notice of this Court, shall stand revived and relegated to the status of pre-5th of October, 2007 position.
The Court had also directed the concerned courts including the trial, the appellate and the review courts to summon the persons accused in such cases and then to proceed in the respective matters in accordance with law from the stage from where such proceedings had been brought to an end in pursuance of the above provisions of the NRO.
The 17-member bench comprised of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Justice, Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice S Khawja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Rahmat Husain Jafferi, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani. |  |
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