SC summons details of Zardari, Musharraf's foreign assets in NRO case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court summoned on Wednesday details of foreign assets of formers presidents Asif Ali Zardari and General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the NRO case.

The National Reconciliation Order (NRO), passed by Musharraf in 2007, granted amnesty to politicians and other individuals by quashing various corruption and criminal cases against them so they could return to the country and engage in the democratic process. 

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar heard the case today, which was attended by the attorney general as well as Zardari’s counsel Farooq Naek.

As the hearing went under way, the court sought the foreign assets details of Zardari and Musharraf, as well as those of former attorney general Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum.

The court directed the respondents to submit affidavits in court, along with details of their personal foreign assets, those of their children, foreign bank accounts and any offshore companies.

Chief Justice Nisar observed that the top court needs to be taken into confidence regarding the ownership of foreign accounts and assets.

During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that we have to make dams and do even bigger work, including ending corruption. 

Last month, former president Zardari submitted his response to the Supreme Court in the NRO case, stressing he had no role in forming the controversial law.

Zardari informed the court that cases against him were quashed in 2007 in compliance with NRO, however, they had reopened after the NRO was overruled by the apex court. 

Zardari was acquited from criminal cases in their subsequent trials, the response stated further.

The case

Nominating Musharraf, Zardari and former attorney general Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani had requested the court in April this year 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of the NRO, through which criminal and corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were ‘arbitrarily withdrawn’ causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer.