Government submits changed draft of Swiss letter to Supreme Court today
By: Sohail Khan
ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday finally presented before the Supreme Court the first draft of the letter to be sent to Swiss authorities for the withdrawal of the 2008 letter by then attorney general Malik Qayyum, which led to the closure of graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
A five-member bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeed heard the NRO verdict implementation case against Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
In compliance with the court order of September 17, Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek presented before the court the draft of a letter to be sent to the Swiss attorney general regarding alleged graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and others. The law minister also presented a letter from the prime minister delegating authority to him to write the letter to Swiss authorities on the PM’s behalf.
During the proceedings, the court objected to the contents of the draft. Justice Asif Khosa pointed 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. He remarked that the draft should mention the complete and correct reference number.
Meanwhile, the court took a recess for 15 minutes. During the recess, the judges called the law minister to the chamber along with Wasim Sajjad and the draft of the letter was discussed there.
Later, the judges reassembled and the law minister requested the court for an adjournment of the hearing till today (Wednesday) so that the changes asked for by the court could be made. The court accepted the law minister’s plea and adjourned the hearing till today (Wednesday).
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