Updated on
Summary Government has prepared new draft of letter to Swiss authorities after removing court reservations.
The amended letter will be presneted before the Supreme Court tomorrow.According to Dunya News, the draft of the letter has been written by a committee of legal experts headed by ex-chairman Waseem Sajjad. Attorney General Irfan Qadir and Law Minister Farooq H Naek also included among composers of the draft of the letter to be written to the Swiss authorities.In the new draft, the government has removed the reservations and allegations which the Supreme Court had raised during hearing of the case on Tuesday.The reformed draft would be put before the Supreme Court tomorrow.Earlier, federal government on Tuesday submitted the Swiss letter draft in Supreme Court.Law Minister Farooq H. Naek appeared before the Supreme Court and presented the draft of a letter to be sent to the Swiss authorities relating to alleged graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.The bench objected to the content of the draft letter, with Justice Asif Khosa pointing out the difference between the reference numbers of the letter written by former attorney general Malik Qayyum and the draft of the letter prepared by the government.In response, the law minister sought more time to consult various points with the government that have emerged during review of the draft by the bench.The bench adjourned the case hearing till September 26.The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto, are suspected of laundering $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was thrown out of office in June after being convicted of contempt of court for refusing to write to the Swiss.The standoff between government and judiciary began in December 2009, when judges issued a ruling that scrapped an amnesty that had allowed Zardari and 8,000 other people to escape possible corruption charges.More than 30 politicians had cases against them withdrawn under the amnesty, which was passed in October 2007 by then-president Pervez Musharraf.
