Pakistan Ministers Are Called Before the Courts
By JANE PERLEZ and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: December 18, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A sweeping Supreme Court decision that reopened corruption cases against thousands of politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, reverberated through the government Friday as important ministers were barred from leaving the country and ordered to appear before the courts in the coming weeks.
Among those immediately affected were the interior minister, Rehman Malik, who is considered particularly close to the United States, and the Defense Minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, raising concerns about how effectively the Zardari government, under pressure from a violent Islamic insurgency, could continue to function.
The two men were among 247 officials, also including Salman Farooki, the chief of staff to Mr. Zardari, placed on what is known as an exit control list, barring them from leaving Pakistan, a measure Pakistan authorities often use to ensure those under criminal investigation do not abscond.
At least 52 politicians were called to appear before corruption courts, according to the National Accountability Bureau, the anticorruption unit that was ordered by the Supreme Court on Wednesday to act expeditiously in reopening the cases.
By the end of Friday, Mr. Farooki had won an interim bail order from the Sindh High Court, a measure that would prevent him from being arrested, legal experts said.
Mr. Malik had also been ordered to appear before the Sindh High Court, according to a report on Express television. Attempts to reach a spokesman for Mr. Malik were unsuccessful.
The Constitution allows President Zardari enjoys immunity under the Constitution from prosecution. He remained defiant Friday against calls from the main opposition party that he step down.
Moreover, he had no intention to ask cabinet ministers or colleagues facing corruption charges to quit either, a media adviser, Farahnaz Ispahani, said Friday.
“The president is fighting fit,” Ms. Ispahani said. “The president was clear that our Pakistan Peoples Party ministers would not be asked to resign merely on the basis of accusation.”
A cabinet reshuffle in which “some people will be out and some will be moved,” would be the main response to the revocation of the amnesty by the Supreme Court, Ms. Ispahani said.
But as Mr. Zardari and his party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the biggest in Pakistan, battled to survive, a groundswell of media and public opinion seemed to exult in the decisiveness of the Supreme Court decision, which suggested there would no longer be a tolerant attitude toward corruption among politicians in Pakistan.“We’ve never seen the mighty in this country held accountable,” said Babar Sattar, a Harvard-trained constitutional lawyer.
Now that the court, backed by public opinion, had come down hard on corruption in a way not seen before in Pakistan, the affected politicians were not sure how to react, Mr. Sattar said.
There was no sign Friday that the army, which has been increasingly at odds with Mr. Zardari, was aiming to take control.
Behind the scenes, the army has been critical of Mr. Zardari, in part because of the president’s early move to put a civilian in charge of the country’ premier spy agency, the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and in part because of his gestures of conciliation toward India, Pakistan’s archenemy.
The army has also grown increasingly wary of Mr. Zardari as an aura of corruption has continued to mount around his government.
The reputation of the army, stained after the president and military chief at the time, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, imposed emergency rule in November 2007, has grown in the past few months as it fights Taliban militants, and it would benefit further because of the severity of the Supreme Court decision against the civilian government, analysts said.
Many of the corruption cases that the Supreme Court said must be reopened originate from the 1990s, including cases against Mr. Zardari, who served 11 years in jail. Mr. Zardari contends he was never convicted, a signal he and his supporters say shows his innocence.
Lawyers affiliated with the opposition party Pakistan Muslim League and some legal experts dispute Mr. Zardari’s insistence that he was not convicted, citing a conviction in Switzerland that Mr. Zardari appealed.
That case was withdrawn by the Pakistani government in 2007 under the provisions of the amnesty against corruption cases imposed by General Musharraf, who later resigned his military post. Lawyers affiliated with the Muslim League also insist that Mr. Zardari carries a conviction for failing to appear when ordered to do so by the Lahore High Court after he left the country in 2004.
In its ruling Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the Musharraf government had acted improperly in withdrawing the case in Switzerland. It asked the Swiss authorities to resume the proceedings. Swiss officials backed away from the Supreme Court’s demand, saying Thursday the case would not be reopened unless Pakistan started proceedings against Mr. Zardari.
In tackling the issue of corruption, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who likes to see himself as the “people’s judge” has gone beyond rolling back the amnesty on individual corruption cases.
This week, the court also took exception to the government removing the chief of the country’s main investigative agency.
In a separate ruling from lifting the amnesty, the court ordered the government to reinstate, the head of the Federal Investigations Agency, Tariq Khosa, who had been dismissed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani .
Mr. Khosa, who was described in the Pakistani press as the country’s toughest corruption fighter, was removed from his job earlier this month while he was in the midst of investigating why the government-run Pakistan Steel Mill had suddenly lost large amounts of money during the first 15 months of Mr. Zardari’s tenure.
The mill, the biggest in the country, had made steady profits in the previous eight years.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/asia/19pstan.html
This is perhaps a turning point for Pakistan, an independent judicial system/Supreme Court holding corrupt politicians accountable, the essence of every great nation. This is what many Pakistanis have been waiting for.
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