Aitzaz rejects Zardari's offer to 'pick any post'

[Naveed Yaseen]

NRO beneficiaries already liable to arrest: Aitzaz
Refuses to serve an adamant Zardari
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: Senior PPP leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan reportedly turned down three top government positions on Thursday, offered by President Asif Zardari, because the PPP Co-chairperson was not willing to give up his powers under the 17th Amendment despite his eroding popularity and lack of credibility.

Sources close to the lawyers’ leader, who had a strained relationship with Zardari because of the judges issue, said Aitzaz had been told that “everything was on the table for him”, but he was unwilling to accept any position as he saw no change in Zardari’s views.

When Aitzaz Ahsan was asked by this correspondent about his meeting with the president and all that was discussed or offered, he refused to go into the private talks he had with the president but answered questions about the NRO and its status after it had been withdrawn from parliament by the government.

Sources said that the basic purpose of Zardari’s meeting with Aitzaz Ahsan was to get him on board to alleviate the mounting woes of the president on legal, judicial and political fronts. Obviously, Zardari did so after feeling the heat, latest by the faux pas over the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

Another credible source said that the Zardari-Aitzaz discussion mainly revolved around the president’s sweeping discretionary powers, the NRO, the problems being faced by Zardari from different quarters, including political, judicial and others, etc.

He said it transpired in the meeting that the president was totally unwilling to shed his powers, which were attracting tremendous criticism, amplifying his difficulties. “But my sense is that no circle that matters is ready to accept Zardari with his present constitutional powers. He may be tolerable as a titular head of the state, and this is the only option through which he may survive in office,” the source said.

According to the source, the main question that irritates many minds is the issue of credibility of the president, who made some very important public agreements and undertakings only to renege on all of them.

The source said that it also emerged in the meeting that some senior government position holders, who were the president’s real advisers, including one nearest to the PPP, his family members and his jail partners were persistently urging him not to agree to shed his powers or he would become absolutely irrelevant and redundant in the present dispensation.

In the view of the source, these people keep influencing the president that with the transfer of his discretionary powers to Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani — who has at times been taking an independent line on important matters different from those of Zardari – the prime minister would become too powerful, something that would impinge hard on his authority.

While Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan would not discuss any of these issues, revealed to The News by different sources, on the legal situation of the NRO he came on record to say that all the cases, purportedly quashed and closed under the NRO after Feb 4, 2008 already stood revived after the withdrawal of the NRO from parliament.

“Had I figured in this category of beneficiaries, I would have immediately gone for pre-arrest bail,” he told The News.Aitzaz Ahsan did not agree with the idea that the NRO would become dead on Nov 28 when its 120-day life, given under the July 31 Supreme Court judgment, would expire, and only then a certain set of cases would stand revived.

He said that as per the apex court’s verdict, the approval of the NRO was till Nov 28, but after it was taken back from parliament, it lost efficacy in every respect.The NRO has no effect, Aitzaz Ahsan said, adding that nobody can now draw any benefit under it as it is no longer in the field. “It has now become history.”

He said all those whose cases were quashed and closed after Feb 4, 2008, were now accused after the expiration of the NRO. None of them, except President Asif Ali Zardari, has constitutional immunity from prosecution, he said.

Aitzaz Ahsan said that Zardari enjoyed the protection from prosecution as long as he was the president. No court can summon him till that time, he said. However, noted constitutional expert Malik Qayyum said that civil proceedings could be initiated against the president and an election petition could be filed against him even during his tenure. He agreed that no proceedings of criminal nature could be started against the president till the time he occupied the presidential office.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=25423