Islamabad, Jun 27 (IANS): Pakistan's Supreme Court Wednesday urged Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf to implement its verdict cancelling the controversial 2007 presidential ordinance that granted amnesty to politicians and bureaucrats accused of corruption.
A three-member bench of the apex court Wednesday directed the attorney general to consult with the prime minister and revert July 12, Geo News reported.
The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was issued by then president Pervez Musharraf. It had enabled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007, her husband Asif Ali Zardari, currently the Pakistani president and a host of others to return home from exile.
The Supreme Court June 19 disqualified Yousuf Raza Gilani as prime minister because its April 26 verdict held him in contempt of court for refusing to write to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against Zardari. Gilani contended that Zardari enjoyed immunity and thus could not be proceeded against.
The court had directed the government of then prime minister Gilani to take action against the president after a hearing of the NRO case.
Gilani had pleaded to the apex court that Zardari enjoyed immunity under the constitution until he held the president's post.