NA standing committee endorses 5 clauses of NRO

Pakistan

NA standing committee endorses 5 clauses of NRO

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30 October,2009 05:22 pm

National Assemblys Standing Committee for Law and Justice has approved the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) with majority vote. The government had disapproved two clauses as the opposition leaders staged walk-out from the session, Dunya News reported Friday.Chairperson of the Standing Committee Begum Naseem Akhtar told that the committee passed NRO with majority vote and it would be forwarded to the parliament for approval. She told that clause one, two, three and six had been passed without amendment whereas clause seven with amendment. The chairperson told that under the amendment in clause seven, corruption cases could not be repealed without approval of the court. PML-N and PML-Q objected over governments failure to present list of NRO beneficiaries in the session and staged walk-out from the meeting. Under the first clause of NRO, the ordinance is implemented from October 5, 2007. The second clause states that the provincial governments would constitute review boards that could repeal cases filed from 1986 to 1999. According to the third clause, Representation of the People Act, 1976 would be amended to make compulsory provision of election results to the polling officer or the candidate himself. Under the sixth clause, an order or judgment passed by the Court in absentia against an accused is void ab initio and shall not be acted upon. The seventh clause states that all cases filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before October 12, 1999 would be exterminated. The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), termed as most notorious act of Constitution, was issued by the former president of Pakistan General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007. It granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money-laundering, murder and terrorism between 1st January 1986 and October 12th 1999, the time between two Martial Laws. The NRO states: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in sub-section(1), the Federal Government or a Provincial Government may, before the judgment is pronounced by a trial court, withdraw from the prosecution of any person including an absconding accused who is found to be falsely involved forpolitical reasons or through political victimization in any case initiated between 1st day of January, 1986 to 12th day of October, 1999 and upon such withdrawal clause (a) and clause (b) of sub-section (1) shall apply. The current Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, suspended this ordinance on October 12, 2007. But he was soon dismissed after Musharraf abrogated the constitution on November 3, 2007. The new Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Dogar revived the NRO on February 27, 2008.