Top Pak judge orders hearing into corruption amnesty
Pakistan's top judge ordered yesterday a hearing into an amnesty, which had been protecting the president and key aides from corruption cases until it expired, plunging the nation into uncertainty.
Political tensions bubbled to the surface over the weekend after simmering for months, when the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) shielding President Asif Ali Zardari came to an end.
Chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has ordered that all petitions involving the examination and interpretation of the NRO be heard on December 7, according to a Supreme Court statement.
Military ruler Pervez Musharraf promulgated the NRO in October 2007, quashing corruption charges against former 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, who spent several years in jail for corruption and is still referred to as Mr Ten Percent, has rock-bottom approval ratings as Pakistan struggles with Taliban violence and recession and as reform efforts stall.
Weathering the worst political crisis of his rule, Zardari's government was forced in March to restore independent judges dismissed by Musharraf, after a nationwide protest.
On July 31, the new Supreme Court set a November 28 deadline for the NRO to be approved by the parliament or else it would lapse.
But the government is seen 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.
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