'SC orders on Zardari's cases will be implemented'

'SC verdicts on Zardari's cases will be implemented'

April 02, 2010 15:26 IST

A day after Pakistan's Supreme Court gave the April 5 deadline to the government to reopen graft cases in Switzerland against Asif Ali Zardari, the President's spokesman on Friday said that all verdicts of the apex court will be implemented in letter and spirit.

"All the verdicts of the Supreme Court will be implemented in letter and spirit as was done in the past," Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Referring to the apex court's order striking down the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), a graft amnesty that benefitted Zardari and thousands of others, Babar told the media: "We are implementing all verdicts of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit and 150 cases have been opened since the verdict on the NRO and ministers are facing courts."

Asked about Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan's statement that Law Minister Babar Awan was creating hurdles in implementing the apex court's order to reopen cases that were quashed under the NRO issued by ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Babar said:

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"We cannot comment on the situation until the point of view of the other side is not heard."

In response to another question, he said the records of the graft cases in Switzerland might be in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the country's anti-corruption agency.

Babar said it was a false impression that anyone would try to influence the working of NAB, which is an independent body and "would function independently as it had done in the past."

Zardari and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, were found guilty in absentia by a Geneva court in 2003 of laundering millions of dollars. They were given six-month sentences and fined but both punishments were suspended when they appealed.

Swiss authorities abandoned the cases against them in 2008 after the Pakistani authorities asked them to. The cases were among over 8,000 anti-corruption cases that were closed under the NRO, which was issued by Musharraf as part of a secret arrangement with Bhutto in 2007.