Only parliament, people, not judiciary can decide fate of Pak government: Editorial

Islamabad,An editorial in a Pakistan daily has called on the country’s Supreme Court to exercise judicial restraint and instead allow the country’s citizens or the parliament to find a way out of the current political impasse.

The editorial thus favours the last out of the six options given by the Pakistan Supreme Court to the government over the non-implementation of its December 16, 2009 order on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was a controversial ordinance issued by the former President General Pervez Musharraf, on October 5, 2007, which granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder, and terrorism.

It was later declared unconstitutional by the Pakistan Supreme Court on December 16, 2009.

The Daily Times editorial says that the court has stepped beyond its judicial powers by giving six options to the government over the non-implementation of its 2009 order on the NRO issue, and pointed out that the court’s warning to remove Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari over the issue is unjustified.

“Can the court ask the government to act against itself, as it has done in the first option whereby the president, prime minister and the law minister may be disqualified for breaches of their oaths? Supremacy of the people and their will is the basis of the democratic principle,” the editorial said.

It stresses that the electorate rather the judiciary is empowered to evaluate the performance of its representatives and decide whether the concerned candidate should be re-elected.

The editorial also points out that Zardari enjoys constitutional immunity and cites Article 248, saying the money-laundering case registered against him in Switzerland cannot be re-opened.

It also questions the possible move to remove National Accountability Bureau chairman over the issue.

‘Even the Swiss authorities are not willing to open the cases as they have indicated time and again. As far as the NAB chairman’s removal is concerned, what has he said or done to attract this option? He has only stated that it is not within NAB’s purview to go after his predecessors,” the editorial said.