NRO extended to benefit all, at all times

[Naveed Yaseen]

http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/oct2009-dail...9/main.htm

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NRO extended to benefit all, at all times
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: In order to protect the top beneficiaries of the NRO, the PPP-dominated National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Friday recommended extension of the highly controversial law to every citizen, ordinary or white collar criminals who could prove that they were politically victimised.

The committee also eliminated the time limits set by Pervez Musharraf from January 01, 1986 to October 12, 1999 so that anyone victimised before or after that timeframe could also benefit.The amendments to the NRO were passed and the opposition members, including the PML-N and PML-Q, staged a walkout in protest.

“Yes, we have amended the NRO draft and added new points to the section ‘Withdrawal and Termination of Prolonged Proceedings’ in Clause 7 under which any case registered even before 1986 or after 1999 could be closed by the courts. We have added the word ‘and any other person’ after the word ‘Public Office Holder’ which will extend the benefits of NRO to every citizen instead of merely politicians and bureaucrats,” PPP Minister of State for Law Muhammad Afzal Sindhu admitted while talking to The News.

Afzal Sindhu is also the ex-officio member of the NA standing committee and was present in the meeting on Friday. The NRO, in its Clause 2, covers cases registered for political vendetta from Jan 1, 1986 to October 12, 1999 while the PPP government’s addition to the NRO eliminates all timeframes and extends its fruits from politicians and Baboos to any person, making it a permanent NRO.

“I am a public officeholder and if some case is registered against my brother for political reasons, it will also be terminated under our new NRO law,” Sindhu said. “Thanks and the same to you” was the reply of junior PPP law minister without any feeling of shame or embarrassment when he was told: “Congratulations on getting the NRO passed from NA standing committee” by this correspondent at the start of the conversation.

Sindhu said that any person or citizen convicted or accused because of registration of any case from murder to robbery and from corruption to fraud could get the benefit of this law if he succeeded in proving before the review boards that the cases registered against him were of political nature.

Sindhu explained the salient features of the new legal system, which could possibly be enforced in the month of November.“Now this approved draft of the NRO will be placed before the National Assembly in the upcoming session starting from November 2.”

He couldn’t tell the exact date when it would be presented before the house as this would be decided by the high command of the party. Sindhu explained that the standing committee had approved 5 clauses of the NRO with majority. He said that of the total seven clauses of the NRO, Clause 2 and 7 were important.

“The committee has approved with majority Clauses 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 while the government has withdrawn Clause 4 and 5,” Sindhu said adding “Clause 4 and 5, which bar the arrest of MNAs and MPAs without the prior approval from ethics committees of parliament and provincial assemblies respectively, were unanimously withdrawn as this was covered in the new accountability law of the country already unanimously approved by the committee.”

The minister disclosed that an important addition to Clause 7 of the NRO will be implemented retrospectively (from the day the NRO was promulgated on October 5, 2007) and in this way any benefit given to any person under the NRO after the day of its promulgation would be legalised.

At the start of the meeting on Friday, the PML-N again raised the issue of media’s expulsion from the Committee Room and proportionate representation of the committee. But the committee’s proceedings went ahead and the first three clauses were approved by seven votes in favour (all PPP men) to six against. Two members of the PPP were absent while the chairperson didn’t vote.

Those who opposed included four members of the PML-N, two of the PML-Q (Raza Hayat Hiraj and Ameer Muqam) while SA Iqbal Qadri of MQM and Riaz Fityana (who reportedly favoured the NRO after some deal with the PPP) abstained from voting. The same was the situation for Clause 6 but when the committee voted on Clause 7, the PML-N members left the Committee Room to catch their flights and thus Clause 7 was approved with 7 to 2 majority.

PML-Q’s Ameer Muqam staged a walkout at the start of the meeting to protest over non-provision of complete list of beneficiaries of the NRO and the crimes forgiven under it. He said he would submit a question in this regard to the National Assembly Secretariat on Saturday so that in the next session the government could provide the nation with these details.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25288