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Pakistan Supreme Court hears challenge to presidential amnesty order

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A special 17-member panel of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday began hearing a legal challenge to an order that grants President Asif Ali Zardari and 8,000 other government officials immunity from corruption charges. There has been speculation that the case may also address separate constitutional immunity granted to Zardari as head-of-state. Opponents of the National Reconciliation Ordinance claim that it violates Article 25 of Pakistan's constitution, the UN Convention against Corruption, and general principles of justice. It is expected that Zardari will face numerous corruption charges if the order is invalidated. The NRO was signed by former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in 2007 as part of a power-sharing accord allowing former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto to return to the country despite corruption charges she had faced. The ordinance also applies to similar charges against politicians who were charged, but not convicted, of corruption between 1988 and 1999.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).