An amnesty on corruption cases protecting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, key allies and thousands of others expired yesterday, threatening to fling Pakistan into fresh political crisis.
The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was promulgated in October 2007 by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf’s decree quashed corruption charges against former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated two months later, her husband Zardari and other politicians in an apparent gesture of reconciliation to prolong his rule.
Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party won subsequent elections in February last year, restoring civilian rule in a country that has been governed for most of its existence by the military.
Zardari, who spent several years in jail for corruption and is still referred to as Mr 10 Percent, has rock-bottom approval ratings as Pakistan struggles with Taliban violence, recession and stalled reform efforts.
Weathering the worst political crisis of his rule so far, Zardari’s government last March was forced to restore independent judges, who had been dismissed by Musharraf, after a nationwide protest.
On July 31, the new Supreme Court set a deadline of yesterday for the NRO to be approved by the parliament or else it would lapse.
The government is seen, however, as too weak to win an extension. Last month the administration tabled the ordinance in parliament, but quickly withdrew it after sensing political opposition was too strong.
“The NRO will lapse after Nov. 28, and cases against beneficiaries will be deemed to be pending,” senior lawyer Abid Hassan Minto said. “Cases can be reopened and convictions may be restored unless the government comes up with a separate order.”
Some analysts say Zardari can stay in office only by agreeing to revoke Musharraf’s 17th Amendment to the Constitution that gives the president the power to dissolve parliament and sack the prime minister.
“On Nov. 28, nothing dramatic and unusual will happen. Life will move on,” said Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for Zardari. “The court will decide. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
In related news, Zardari has amended a law to relinquish executive control over nuclear weapons to the prime minister.
The change in the structure of the National Command Authority came late on Friday as part of 28 ordinances that Zardari had to reissue which otherwise would have lapsed after midnight yesterday under a Supreme Court ruling.
“The shedding of powers ... was effected through re-promulgation of [the] National Command Authority Ordinance, 2009 and amending it also,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Zardari has been under pressure from all sides — political opposition, judiciary and military — to resign or at least become just a figurehead president.
An influential sector of the media has been carrying on a campaign against him and his Pakistan People’s Party for alleged corruption.
The News, an English-language daily of the Jang group which is seen as spearheading the campaign, alleged in a report yesterday that Zardari and Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani, had discussed how to weaken the military’s hold on politics.
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