February 07, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 28, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The government said in the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) 2007 was protected under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), implying that it would not become invalid like other ordinances if not approved by parliament within four months.

Promulgated on Oct 5, 2007 by President Pervez Musharraf, the NRO granted amnesty to public office holders charged in corruption cases filed between 1986 and 1999. “Ordinarily, an ordinance lasts only four months but the NRO is protected under Article 5(1)(2) of the Nov 3, 2007 PCO,” Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum argued before a five-member bench that had taken up several identical challenges against the NRO.

The bench comprises Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf.

Article 5 of the PCO suggests that orders issued by the president or governor of any province are not subject to any limitation of period.

Answering a question raised by the court, the attorney-general conceded, however, that the future operation of the ordinance would be subject to the Constitution.

The bench put off the hearing for the last week of February, observing that no further adjournments would be granted.

Lawyers of the petitioners, Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, ex-bureaucrat Roedad Khan, Tariq Assad and former PPP leader Dr Mubashar Hasan, were present in the court.

When Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar cited the 1971 case of Sheikh Atta Mohammad versus Rent Controller of Lahore, and said that it had been held that if ordinances were not placed before assemblies, they would be deemed to have lapsed.

The attorney-general said after going through the citation from a legal journal sent by the court: “As usual, we are taken by surprise.”

The bench also suggested examining of Article 270AAA in this case under which the Nov 3, 2007, proclamation of emergency rule and PCO by President Pervez Musharraf as the then army chief had been validated.

At the outset, Afzal Siddiqui informed the court that senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, who was representing Dr Mubashar Hasan, had called for a general adjournment while Roedad Khan, who appeared in person, requested a three-week deferment.

When an advocate-on-record for Qazi Hussain told the court that his client was “busy in election campaign”, the bench asked from which constituency the JI leader was contesting the polls and observed that it would have believed him if he had said his client was on a campaign to stop the elections.

Later, Malik Qayyum told reporters that the NRO would remain in operation till the time it was disapproved either by parliament or declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.

He also said Article 270AAA of the constitution would not be placed before the next parliament after the elections since it did not need be indemnified.