NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Great move to fool BB and divide opposition.

Long live the free judiciary. Long live President Musharraf. :jhanda:

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=75216

NRO likely to be struck down by courts

Monday, October 08, 2007

By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: Not only a large number of lawyers but many ruling coalition leaders also firmly believe that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) will be struck down by superior courts in the next few days. Already a petition has been filed in the apex court praying that the NRO should be declared null and void as it runs counter to the Constitution. More such petitions are likely to be filed in the court with the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and some other civil society organizations becoming an active party to it.

Legal experts say that the NRO clearly violates Article 25 of the Constitution, which says that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law; there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone; and nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the protection of women and children. These experts believe that the NRO is discriminatory in letter and spirit as it provides pardon, waiver and concessions to a certain category of politicians and bureaucrats for the offences they committed between January 1986 and October 1999.

Even several lawyers sympathetic to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have dismissed the ordinance as a huge fraud being committed by the plunderers of national wealth. They are coming in the open to oppose the unique law. “If we give a clean bill of health to all those who pocketed massive kickbacks and commissions and committed daytime robberies, running into billions of rupees, why shouldn’t we fling open the gates of jails to set free all other criminals regardless of their crimes, whose cases are pending in courts?” one of them asked on condition of anonymity.

While former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari, are jubilant over the promulgation of the NRO that they imposed on General Pervez Musharraf as a result of the successful deal-dialogue, a major influential section of the ruling coalition is still against the law. “The government and the PPP played politics and the government won. There are reservations against the ordinance in the party and this does happen in a democratic system,” ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said in his usual no holds-barred comment on day two of the introduction of the law.

His comment amply reflected the intention of the government for promulgating the NRO. It appears that the law was meant to temporarily appease Ms Bhutto and wasn’t intended to stay. Perhaps, the timing of the enforcement of the NRO was designed to make the PPP not walk out of the electoral college of the presidential election. It did stay in it but abstained from voting in favour of its presidential candidate, Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Regardless of Musharraf’s intention in promulgating the ordinance, many powerful elements of the ruling coalition are out to scuttle the law so that its actual beneficiary, Ms Bhutto and her cronies, who are accused of massive corruption, do not get the intended benefit from it. They continue to exert their influence on Musharraf to achieve the objective.

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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

:rotfl: BB has been really taken for a ride by the govt side. :k:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\10\08\story_8-10-2007_pg1_6

Govt divided Opp on NRO to win presidential poll: Aziz

The government said on Sunday that it had successfully divided the opposition by promulgating the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) of 2007 on the eve of the presidential election, enabling President General Pervez Musharraf to remain president for another five years. “We wanted to gain political mileage from [the NRO], and we were successful because President Musharraf got votes from all parts of the country and the opposition could not make the election controversial,” said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in a press conference at Prime Minister’s House.

PML won: Chaudhry Shujaat said the ordinance was a political move that had carried through. He told reporters that the PML and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had both played their own politics on the NRO, with the former succeeding in getting President Musharraf re-elected for another term by the current assemblies without any trouble. Aziz rejected the possibility of a fresh promulgation of the NRO if struck down by the Supreme Court. He said the promulgation of the ordinance was a difficult decision and there was opposition from within the ruling party, which was resolved after discussion. He said the ordinance had a number of positive aspects. Later, Shujaat told Musharraf that his statement on the NRO was a joke, Geo quoted sources as saying.

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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

Also, what people seem to have missed is that any ordinance promulgated by the President is only a temporary law, for a period of 4 months. After that period it must be laid before parliament to approve, otherwise it expires.

Hence, the NRO will have to placed before the newly elected National Assembly and existing Senate in late January 2008. There is no way that the PPP-P alone is going to get a majority in the National Assembly after the elections, but even if it cobbles one together, it will still need to be approved by the PML Q dominated Senate as well. So whether the Supreme Court strikes the NRO down or not, there is no guarantee that the assemblies will ratify it in a few months time. Very clever of Musharraf indeed. :slight_smile:

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Later, Shujaat told Musharraf that his statement on the NRO was a joke, Geo quoted sources as saying.

Shujaat answering upto his my-baap in flying lota style!

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Don't you think this '4-month' deal will also guarantee PPP's participation in upcoming elections, and if they do and will (99% likely) they will approve this ordinance into becoming law?

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Hahaha. Try getting this through the next parliament with the vote bank divided like never before. :hehe:

Also, the Free Judiciary would have a thing or two to say about this. :smiley:

God Bless President Musharaf. God Bless the Free Judciary. :jhanda:

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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

Aalsi, another very important point that people seem to be missing is that NRO or not BB will be unable to pass a single law without the support of the second chamber - the Senate, even if she gets a majority in the National Assembly.

In the Senate (whose composition will remain the same until March 2009) the present governing coalition (PML Q, MQM, PPP-Sherpao, PML-Functional, BNP-Awami and FATA tribals) has a 58% majority. The PPP-P has a mere 9% of the seats, so any government it leads will be stymied or be totally reliant on the PML Q, MQM and others.

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Wow...what a move... :D

I thought the time span was 60 days (within) to to get it ratified by the lower and the upper houses...and needed a 2/3 majority? Otherwise it will become automatically void...

What if the President doesn't put it infront of the assembly... :D

PS: I guess...MQM, PPP, PML(N) and other would-be beneficiary parties would vote in favor...

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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

If the President does not put it before the National Assembly within four months it will automatically expire.

If it get’s approved by the National Assembly, then it will go to the Senate for approval. But PPP-P only has 9% of the seats there, so it will need PMLQ, MQM and other parties support to get it approved. :slight_smile:

Long live parliamentary democracy. :jhanda:

**

**

Entering Womanhood
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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

Indeed. That’s what people wanted and are getting. :k:

God Bless President Musharaf. God Bless Pakistan. God Bless the Free Judiciary. :jhanda:

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I just added the right words to make it more applicable and appropriate.

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I added the right word to make it more accurate.

~~ Will you Quit GS ?? ~~
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I just find it too funny seeing mush fan base jumping from one side of the fence to the other..first declaring BB corrupt and a security risk. Then taking a u-turn and singing hymns of her mass support and liberal stand just cuz the emperor said so, and then taking yet another u-turn to mourn her stupidity.

tsk tsk.

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jo un ko lagay ke Musharraf ke liye achha hay, wohi sach hay.

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God Bless You Captain1. Army is here to stay. :k:

God Bless President Musharaf. God Bless the Free Judiciary. God Bless Pakistan. :jhanda:

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I know that and thats exactly why the opportunists here and assemblies in Pakistan are siding with Musharraf.

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Alhamdiliallah. Good to see some people care for Pakistan enough to see it continue with its unprcedented economic growth, free media, and free judiciary. :k:

God Bless President Musharaf. God Bless pakistan. :jhanda:

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Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.

Why I support President Musharraf as leader for Pakistan:

I think that if anyone is supporting President Musharraf so that he keeps or keeping tested corrupt leaders out, than that person is misguided. If anyone thinks that people support President because of that, than that is completely wrong assumption.

President Musharraf has no right to keep them out neither he ever said that in meaningful way. Deal with NS was for 10 years, not for life … so it is obvious that President did not wanted him to be out of Pakistan forever. As for BB, government party is saying in clear words that she has gone out of country on her own free will and can come back anytime whenever she wants.

So, why many (that includes me) support President? Well, let me give an example for understanding.

You have a business that has a manager (Pakistan is business and manager at moment is President Musharraf)

Now, your manager can be of 4 types.

A: A very competent and honest manager.
Result: Business performance is good.

B: A very competent but dishonest manager.
Result: Business performance is good, but not as good as it should

C: An incompetent but honest manager.
Result: Business performance is bad.

D: An incompetent and dishonest manager.
Result: Business performance is near bankruptcy.

Ideal for the business would be to have type A as manager. Next best for the business would be type B as manager. Type C and Type D would be disaster for the business.

President Musharraf is type ‘A’ manager for Pakistan.
Nawaz and Benazir were type ‘D’ managers.

Present Musharraf team is type ‘B’ whereas Nawaz and BB team were type ‘D’.

Thus, that is the reason for people (like me) to support President Musharraf. There is nothing personal in his support nor there is hero-worshiping. It is simple performance and logical conclusions.

Now regarding NRO:

Let me give the answers in detail, though I don’t believe that all will understand or accept my answer (many die-heart supporters of BeNazir and Nawaz would reject my answer completely :)), but still … I will try.

If past corrupt ever come to power again, what you think? Do you think that NRO will bring those corrupts into power or votes of public? (Obviously, it would be vote of public). Musharraf could die tomorrow and then what? If image and party of these past corrupt leaders stay intact than they would come back into power again to loot and plunder. Zia stopped PPP from coming into power, but when Zia died, PPP was there in power again. So, keeping a party out of power does not mean that party would die out. These cases could have only kept BB and NS out of Pakistan as long Musharraf is in power, but what about after that?

So, most important thing to do is to expose these corrupt leaders to public, so that public come out of their personality spell. I think that NRO was a good step of exposing BB. Just imagine, what PPP got from deal with present government?

President declined almost all of Benazir these demands:

Benazir wanted that Presidential election should be left to next assembly, and if not, than at least President shed the uniform before Presidential election.

Benazir wanted that constitution should get changed so that bar on third time Prime Minister is removed. (At present, PPPP along with government parties can change the constitution).

Benazir wanted dissolving of assembly power (52-B) in the hand of President to finish.

Benazir wanted National Security council to finish.

Benazir wanted that Local council should get demolished before coming election.

Benazir wanted consensus on interim government that would administer election, where PPPP should have major say on interim Prime Minister, and who should administer the election.

Blah, blah and blah.

But Benazir main secret demand that she did not wanted to get exposed is that, all her corruption cases get washed out.

President only accepted Benazir this demand

Now it is open secret that major obstacle with BB since last 5 years was that, Musharraf did not wanted to drop corruption charges on her (that was initiated by NS and Laghari). In 2002 Musharraf offered Prime Minister post to PPP (Amin Fahim) but Benazir did not agreed because she wanted all corruption charges to get dropped.

Anyhow, to get her exposed to masses this type of NRO was needed, where none of her political or any other demands were met except one; that is drop of cases. But then, that demand of dropping cases is not easy as that can be challenged in courts, plus it all depends on her bringing enough seats in coming election (that I don’t think she could, especially after getting exposed with her deal for NRO).

Note: NRO fulfils two good aspects for government.

First aspect of NRO is that, I believe government is riding on big popularity amongst masses (at least they believe) and do not want any excuse from corrupt losers (BB and NS) after election. If all take part in election under conciliation (where BB and NS take part from within Pakistan) and lose than it would be a big victory for government. It would politically going to strengthen government further in future.

Second aspect is political mileage. Just try to think. Government did not include their period in NRO. They could have easily made deal that period of NRO should be from 1986 to Oct 2007 (that means, no chance of any corruption cases on them that may have happened during the time 1999-2007 will get washed out because of NRO). Thus in front of public, government and their allies came out clean from NRO showing that they were not corrupt, hence did not bothered to include their period. But NRO exposed past corrupts and their parties as corrupts. All insane person would today going to ask that why BB went for NRO when today judiciary is independent, and thus she should ask judiciary to get through her cases.

I believe that NRO and other government behaviours with PPP, buried PPP as party, at least buried Bhutto family in future politics. Something that Zia tried for 11 years and could not do, President Musharraf did it shrewdly. President Musharraf showed his political insight, and hoodwinked Benazir politically to do one of her biggest blunder. It seems that President played with Benazir sentiments and greed, in politically most mature and shrewd way.

Now, it is up to court and future assembly to accept or reject NRO (as at present it is just an ordinance that has I believe 3 months expiry time), but nevertheless what ever the result, conditions of NRO is a check-mate political move by Musharraf. He gave Benazir nothing but made her accept that she is scared and not willing to face court on corruption charges (because she is corrupt).

Even after that, if people vote for Benazir, it is not fault of President but fault of people. It would be similar, that President suspended corrupt CJ but people went behind corrupt CJ, and today a corrupt person is CJ of Pakistan.

Similarly he exposed NS when situation became such that NS admitted in public that he did made a deal to get away from Pakistani prison. Though he said that he did not made deal with Musharraf, but that also shows to masses that NS is liar and believes that people are idiots. People know very well that he left Pakistan after doing deal with Musharraf, even if they keep quite. It is because, if NS did not made deal with Musharraf, how he left Pakistani prison?

He could not have left Pakistani prison by making deal with Saudi Arabia, and people must have realised that, as NS was not in Saudi prison to get out of it by making deal with Saudi Arabian government. If people did not understand that, Pakistan government kept repeating that too, so that people should understand, and thus understand that NS is liar. Now it is up to people that if they would vote for him or not. When he came to Pakistan, people showed their support for him, that is NIL.

** As for President gaining anything from NRO deal, that is absurd assumption too**. President did not needed PPP votes to win the election (and Chaudhari brothers were continuously reminding people even before deal). Musharraf already had enough support in assembly to win the election. Situation is as under:

Senate: 100 seats: Pro-government 54
NA: 342 pro-government 201

Senate and NA: 442 seats. Pro-government 255.
Musharraf got 252 votes = 57 percent of total votes

Sindh: 168 seats: Pro-government 100.
Musharraf got 102 votes = 61 percent of total votes

Balochistan: 65 seats: PML (Q) 28, JWP 4
Musharraf got 33 votes = 51 percent of total votes

Punjab: 371 seats: Pro-Mush 271
Musharraf got 253 votes = 68 percent of total votes

NWFP: 124 seats: PPP (Sherpao) 13, PML(Q) 10
Musharraf got 31 votes = 26 percent of total votes.

**Overall: **1170 votes
Musharraf got 671 votes = 57.35 percent of total votes.

Overall effective votes for Presidential election: 702 (as each provincial assembly effective votes are 65)
Musharraf got around 386 votes = 55 percent of total votes.

Wajeeh-uddin total effective votes = less than 4 votes.
Musharraf needed more than 4 effective votes to win the election, he got 386 votes. Well, even if all votes that Musharraf did not receive becomes vote for his opposition, than also it would be 316 effective votes against President 386 votes.

So, what deal president needed to win the election? Only thing that PP could have done was resign :)

But if they had resigned, government would have imposed emergency, had by-election, won more seats and then Musharraf would have won Presidential election with more votes. Most likely in such situation, Pro-Musharraf parties may have got over 2/3 majority and could have even changed the constitution to give President another 5 years Presidency with uniform (I think that is what probably Chaudhri brothers wanted to do).

So, all this talk that NRO was done by President to save his seats is bull-sh*t. Perception was created so that Benazir get dragged into making deal that could end her political career (though time would tell).

If President Musharraf was worried about his election and needed deal with Benazir than President would have agreed on some of above political demands of Benazir too.

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Saleem, you also believe that the referundum a few years ago was accurate and fair? Also, you could have said everything in one sentence instead of typing those long kahaaniz...

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Sa1eem bhai, we already know what your priority is i.e. ching ching $$$, no need of 10s of paras repeating same thing over and over. Nation does not become "nation" by money, otherwise Saudi society should be one of the best.