ISLAMABAD, April 21: The government on Monday thwarted a move for a debate on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in the National Assembly by terming it sub judice.

Pakistan Muslim League-N lawmakers Hanif Abbasi, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Malik Ibrar Ahmed, Barjees Tahir and Abid Sher Ali, through a call-attention notice, wanted the government to extend the scope of relief under the NRO to the general public and political workers throughout the country.

The NRO, promulgated after an accord between the late PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf, was challenged in the Supreme Court which had issued a stay order. The order was vacated by incumbent Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and, as a result, some senior PPP leaders, including its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, were cleared of almost all corruption charges.

In his brief statement, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Senator Farooq H. Naek said: “Since the NRO was challenged in the Supreme Court, the matter stands sub judice. Therefore, I would restrain from giving any comment on it.”

Acting Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi in his ruling said: “The matter is sub judice being pending in the Supreme Court and it cannot be further discussed.”

Moving the call-attention notice, Mr Abbasi said its purpose was to invite attention of the house to the fact that while senior politicians and bureaucrats against whom long outstanding cases had been pending unproved benefited from the said law, it was not applied to lower-level political workers.

In response to a call-attention notice by Chaudhry Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and other PPP lawmakers, Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar informed the house that the Punjab Cooperative Bank needed to be merged with the Bank of Punjab or liquidated after its non-performing loans went up to 39.5 per cent and the provincial government was under pressure to pay Rs8 billion in guarantee money to the State Bank.

Former chief minister of Punjab Pervaiz Elahi said: “The bank was established to promote cooperative farming in the province and not for earning profit.”