What if the SC courts throws out NRO?
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=10837
Speedy justice for MQM under NRO
Board chairman says 2,500 cases cleared
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Working at an astounding speed, the Review Board for Sindh, set up under the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), has already cleared for quashing almost 2,500 cases against the top leadership of the MQM, including its chief Altaf Hussain.
The entire Muttahida leadership, along with more than 2,000 others, will stand exonerated of a multitude of alleged serious crimes, including murder, if the recommendations of the Review Board are implemented.
A top official said while the vast majority of cases cleared by the RBS belong to the MQM, there are also a small number of beneficiaries belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Punjabi Pakhtoon Ittehad (PPI).
However, the recommendations of the board, headed by Justice (retd) Dr Ghous Muhammad, a retired high court judge, await the approval of the provincial chief minister. But most importantly even after his approval, these recommendations can be implemented only after the Supreme Court’s final decision on the legality and constitutionality of the NRO.
The Chairman of the RBS, Justice (retd) Dr Ghous Muhammad, when contacted, confirmed to The News that almost 2,000-2,500 criminal cases had been recommended to be dropped while 355 cases had been rejected so far.
Prosecutor General, Sindh, Rana Muhammad Shamim, said that the beneficiaries include Altaf Hussain, Dr Farooq Sattar, Kanwar Khalid Younis, Wasim Akhtar and Dr Imran Farooq. Rana Shamim said that the cases recommended by the RBS related to offences like murder, sniper firing, rioting, dacoity, possession of unlicensed arms, etc. He confirmed that the vast majority of the cases cleared so far involved the MQM leadership or its workers. But the prosecutor general hastened to add that the recommended cases generally pertained to “blind FIRs”.
Blind FIRs, he clarified, were those in which the accused were named without any evidence. Asked about the type of cases recommended for abolition against the MQM chief, the provincial prosecutor general said that Altaf Hussain was in the category of “absconders”.
The controversial NRO, which paved the way for Benazir Bhutto’s recent return to Pakistan as General Musharraf’s ally, primarily pertains to the cases registered under the Ehtesab Act and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance. However, a last minute addition made in the NRO without the knowledge of the Pakistan People’s Party legal experts, amended Section 494 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for the benefit of the MQM.
Previously, under the CrPC a criminal case including one against an absconding accused could be withdrawn by the government with the consent of the court. The NRO clipped these judicial powers and allowed the government to withdraw any criminal case falling in the category of political victimization on the recommendation of the review board.
What is really interesting is the speed at which the Sindh Board has worked. Thousands of criminal cases have been cleared within 20 days of the promulgation of the controversial NRO. Both the chairman RBS and the provincial prosecutor general disclosed that most of the cases forwarded by the Sindh government to the RBS were already under consideration of the home department for withdrawal through courts.
According to Rana Shamim, the home department had received most of the now-cleared cases on October 5, the very day when the NRO was promulgated. The RBS was immediately constituted that hurriedly met on October 8th to start its work and later continued its meetings. Although, there were weekends and even long Eid holidays, yet the RBS worked so efficiently that it cleared 2,000-2,500 cases and rejected nearly 355.
When asked if it is possible to clear such a huge number of cases in such a short time, the chairman RBS said that since most of these cases were already under process, things became easy for the board.
Rana Shamim revealed that along with the advocate general and the law secretary Sindh, he was also a member of the RBS but he excused himself because of the fact that he had been dealing with some of these cases as a lawyer that were being placed before the RBS.
The prosecutor general said that he had forwarded all the cleared cases to the home department for their presentation before the chief minister, who under the law might or might not agree with the recommendation of the RBS.
