Supreme Court rejects another draft of Swiss letter

Rejecting another draft of the letter to be written to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the Supreme Court on Friday granted a five-day reprieve to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for revising the draft.

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa resumed the hearing of NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) implementation case.

The court revived the revised draft of a letter to be dispatched to Swiss court submitted by Law Minister Farooq H Naek.

However the bench objected over the draft, saying the first two paragraphs were as per the court’s directives but the not the last one.

Justice Khosa remarked, “The draft is not in spirit of the court’s order, adding that the first and second paragraphs of the draft were in accordance with the court’s order but the third paragraph conflicted with the first two paragraphs as well as with the court’s verdict.”

He further stated that the last paragraph of the draft needed reviewing and that the matter was just inches away from a resolution, adding that the court would give the government more time as the matter was nearing a conclusion.

Justice noted, “It took a long time for the government to reach the current point and all the work done in the past could not simply be wasted.” Later, the court granted two days to the prime minister for revising the draft of a letter.

Law Minister Farooq Naek showed agreement with the court, requesting 15 minutes to discuss with the judges their reservations, which was approved by the bench. He stated that the government would implement the order of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has twice rejected the drafts as unsatisfactory, and had given Naek till October 5 (today) to get the draft right – or risk the restarting of proceedings against the prime minister.

Last month, a breakthrough on the long-standing issue was seemingly achieved when the government agreed to write the letter to Swiss authorities regarding graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 5 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.