September 08, 2007	Saturday	Sha'aban 25, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of petitions filed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, challenging a former attorney-general’s move to seek documents from Swiss authorities in a money laundering case against them in 1997, terming them infructuous.

The seven-member bench was headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and comprised Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Javed M. Buttar and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed.

On Sept 4, the court had remanded the matter to the Sindh High Court and had directed it to decide the petitions on merit instead of technical grounds.

The court said its order still held the field and disposed of the petitions as infructuous.

The Supreme Court had earlier set aside the SHC’s judgment that it had no jurisdiction to hear petitions against attorney-general.

In her petition, the then leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and PPP’s chairperson had sought the court to direct the government to withdraw the attorney-general’s letter dated Nov 6, 1997, which alleged that she and her husband had “ill-gotten money in their foreign accounts”.

She also requested the court to declare the attorney-general’s action as being without lawful authority and that the decision of the Swiss magistrate and the proceedings preceding it were the result of misstatement, misrepresentation and falsehood contained in an earlier correspondence.

Farooq H. Naek appeared before the bench for the petitioners. Deputy Attorney-General Sardar Mohammad Ghazi informed the court about the petitions’ status.