The Supreme Court has accepted a plea against National Reconciliation Order, promulgated in 2008 in Pervez Musharraf tenure as president, on Tuesday and directed former military dictator Musharraf, former president Asif Zardari and Malik Abdul Qayyum to submit their replies in the case within a month.
The orders were given by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar while hearing a petition by Feroze Shah Gilani regarding the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The apex court approved a petition against NRO saying that the country suffered losses of billions through this ordinance and those who promulgated it should be directed to pay off the losses.The chief justice in his remarks while accepting the plea, said that they [Supreme Court] had annulled the law and those who were benefited from it and now nothing is left in it.
The apex court later adjourned the hearings for a month.
NRO was a controversial ordinance issued by the former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, on 5 October 2007.
It granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder, and terrorism between 1 January 1986, and 12 October 1999, the time between two states of martial law in Pakistan.
It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 16 December 2009.
