LAHORE, Aug 14: Is the record of all the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) intact with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)?

Though the NAB claims it is in possession of the entire record, sources insist vital evidence against some of the beneficiaries has gone missing.

“In case the NRO is revoked (in the days to come) who will ensure that the record is available to reopen the cases,” the sources say.

Prominent among the 200 NRO beneficiaries are: former prime minister of Pakistan, the late Benazir Bhutto, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Mrs Nusrat Bhutto, PPP general secretary Jehangir Badar, adviser to prime minister on interior affairs Rehman Malik, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Planning Commission’s deputy chairman Salman Farooqi, ambassador designate to Iran M B Abbasi, Intelligence Bureau Joint Director Sheikh Riaz and former principal secretary to Benazir Bhutto, Ahmed Sadiq.

The president, it may be added, had been advised by some of his aides, including PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Husain, to revoke the NRO and restore all the judges if he ever decided to quit the office before his impeachment. Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Hamid Khan told Dawn on Thursday it would be a ‘bad advice’ to the president to go for revoking the NRO. “If this happens it will make the situation more complicated,” he maintained.

Mr Khan said it would not be easy for the president to get the NRO repealed as either it had to be debated in the parliament or challenged in the Supreme Court. “The federal government can challenge the NRO and not the president himself,” he maintained and added that only an ‘independent judiciary’ could decide its fate on merit.It is pertinent to mention that the NAB’s special operations cell headed by additional deputy chairman Hasan Wasim Afzal was tasked to pursue the cases of top politicians and bureaucrats. However, its ‘prime assignment’ was to collect ‘solid documentary evidence’ in Pakistan and abroad in respect of all corruption cases related to Ms Benazir and Asif Zardari. It was only answerable to the president.

The cell located on 3-Club Road Lahore was wound up in March 2007 on the orders of President Musharraf and its record was shifted to the NAB headquarters in Islamabad.

Closure of this cell was the first step towards materialising the ‘deal’ between the president and Ms Benazir. Mr Hasan Waseem Afzal was then transferred as principal secretary to the Punjab governor and, recently he had been made an officer on special duty (OSD).

Interestingly, a bullet and bomb-proof vehicle provided to Mr Afzal was withdrawn soon after the new government came into power.