ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Muneer A. Malik told the Supreme Court on Friday that revival of graft cases worth $60 million against former president Asif Zardari was not possible because the government’s appeal was ‘hopelessly time-barred’ and the decision to close the case by the former attorney general of Geneva in 2008 had become final.

But a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which had taken up the NRO implementation case, expressed disappointment over what it said was a violation of its order.

The government was still waiting for a court order instead of taking practical steps in the matter, the court observed. The AG sought time to receive fresh instructions on the issue from the government.

On June 26, the AG had told the court that while the previous PPP government had written a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen the graft cases, it had also sent a secret letter to the law firm it had engaged, asking for official confirmation of the Swiss authority’s inability to revive the cases. —Staff Reporter