Pakistan’s president faced fresh calls to step down yesterday after the Supreme Court struck down an amnesty that had protected the increasingly unpopular leader and several of his political allies from corruption charges.
The decision late on Wednesday weakened the already shaky rule of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and sharpened political tensions in the nation just as the US and its other Western allies want it to unite and fight militants along the Afghan border.
The US was believed to have carried out another missile strike against militants along that border yesterday. Intelligence officials said the missiles hit a car carrying two suspected insurgents in Dosali village in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal area where the media is largely barred from entering.
PHOTO: AFP
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be identified by name in the media. The US carried out more than 40 such strikes this year, killing scores of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, but angering many Pakistanis.
While it is generally agreed that Zardari has immunity from prosecution as president, the court ruling means his opponents can now challenge his eligibility to hold the post. Zardari is already unpopular in large part because of his close ties with Washington, and the allegations of wrongdoing being heard in court will add to his troubles.
Zardari and his aides say any corruption charges against him are politically motivated and that he will not step down.
Critics said he was morally obligated to resign, at least while the court heard any challenges to his rule.
“It will be in his own interest, it will be in the interest of his party and it will be good for the system,” said Khawaja Asif, a senior leader from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League party.
The amnesty was part of a US-brokered deal with former military ruler Pervez Musharraf that allowed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to return home from self-exile and participate in politics without facing charges her party says were politically motivated.
Zardari, Bhutto’s husband, took control of the party after Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.
Known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance, it either stopped corruption investigations or probes into other alleged misdeeds or wiped away convictions in cases involving up to 8,000 ministers, bureaucrats or politicians from across the spectrum.
Civil rights activists have criticized the amnesty as unfairly protected the wealthy elite.
Zardari has long been haunted by corruption allegations dating back to governments led in the 1990s by his late wife. He spent several years in prison under previous administrations. The Supreme Court this week heard allegations he misappropriated as much as US$1.5 billion.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court singled out an investigation that began in 2006 in a Swiss court into allegations of money laundering against Zardari and his late wife. Authorities there suspended the case last year after the attorney general under Musharraf told them the government was no longer pursuing it. The court said this was illegal and ordered the government to ask Swiss authorities to reopen the case.
That case could now feature in any legal challenge against the president.
“Anybody can now ask the court to examine his fitness for office,” said Shaiq Usmani, a former judge.
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