SC fixes Zardari’s cases for Nov 16, 17: Confusion arises if it was mistake or intent

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has put two cases of President Asif Zardari on its Cause List for hearing on Nov 16 and Nov 17.

Case No Crl.A. 211/98 (Ehtesab) (DB) titled ‘Asif Ali Zardari vs The state’ and Case No Crl.A. 282/99 (Transfer) (DB) (ATC) with titled ‘The state vs Asif Ali Zardari’, have been placed on the Cause List for hearing by Bench No 3 of the Supreme Court, which consists of Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed.

Notices have also been issued to prominent lawyers, including Mehr Khan Malik and Chaudhry Akhtar Ali, Deputy Attorney-General. Whether it is a mistake or the Supreme Court intends to hear these cases is not yet known.

In one case senior advocate Aitzaz Ahsan was President Asif Zardari’s lawyer. But when differences emerged between the two at the start of the movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in early 2007, Zardari appointed Farooq Naek and Latif Khosa as his counsel. According to informed sources, the Supreme Court has also issued a notice to Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan in this case. But it could not be ascertained ifAitzaz Ahsan will represent Asif Zardari in the case or not.

A senior legal expert, who remained attached with NAB cases, has expressed ignorance about the cases. “All the cases of Ehtesab Bureau were transferred to NAB and all NAB cases had been closed under the NRO,” he said, adding: “I can comment after seeing the file of the case as to why this case has been put up in the Cause List of the apex court.”

He said it is also possible that the case was closed and may now have been put on the Cause List because of some application moved in the Supreme Court against its closure. In the second case, to be heard on Nov 17, titled ‘The state vs Asif Ali Zardari’, notices have been issued to Akhlaq Ahmad Siddiqui and late Faizan-ul-Haq.

According to a senior legal expert, this case might have become infructuous because of the NRO but may still be on the Cause List because the petition filed by the state against President Zardari may not have been withdrawn so far.

Legal experts were confused on the issue as to why these cases have been put on the apex court’s list as after the death of NRO the cases closed under this unconstitutional and discriminatory ordinance are yet to be opened.

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