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THE government is contemplating reviving through the Swiss court of appeal graft cases against former president Asif Ali Zardari for the return of $60 million reportedly stashed away in Swiss banks.
Informed sources told Dawn that the law ministry was engaged in discussions with a Geneva-based law firm, Python & Peter, and an Islamabad-based firm, Amhurst Brown, to revive cases against the former president that Swiss authorities closed last year due to a time-bar.
The sources said the government’s legal minds were confident that the Swiss cases could be reopened following a Rawalpindi accountability court’s revival of cases that had been kept pending against Mr Zardari because he enjoyed presidential immunity for five years.
“The appeal could be filed in the Swiss court of appeal shortly,” said a government official. Currently, the two private law firms are reviewing “the judgments of the accountability courts in Rawalpindi acquitting the persons co-accused with Asif Ali Zardari in the SGS and Cotecna cases to firm up a future course of action,” he said.
However, Law Secretary Barrister Zafarullah said: “Not in my knowledge,” in an SMS reply when asked if the government had decided to request the reopening of the SGS and Cotecna cases in Switzerland.
The minister for law and information, Senator Pervez Rashid, did not talk in clear terms about the issue for almost a week. When contacted on Dec 23, he said: “Your information might be right, but I am not fully updated. I will get back with the latest situation tomorrow.”
Approached two days later, he said: “We have decided on oath that we will not politicise any issue. We will go by the book and keep taking steps under the law.
“We will not try to persecute anybody or try to exonerate anybody. As you may have noticed, we have initiated the cases kept pending. In case there is a matter of national interest, we will take it to parliament for a decision.”
He declined to get into the specifics: “I have not been able to consult the relevant persons so far. I have some meetings lined up now and may be able to get an update on the issue tonight or tomorrow and get back to you.” He did not do this, however.
An official said the law firm Amhurst Brown had advised the law ministry that it was “of utmost importance for the government to move fast in the national interest.”
Swiss attorneys Jacques Python and Wolfgang Peter of the firm Python & Peter have already asked the government to clear about 39,800 Swiss francs (about $45,000) in outstanding fee.
The Swiss law department informed Islamabad in October that cases against Mr Zardari in that country’s courts cannot be reopened now because the specified time had already expired earlier in February last year, and thus the cases were time-barred.
END OF IMMUNITY: But according to sources, the ministry of law believed that not only could a civil suit be filed but the jurisdiction of the Swiss court of appeal could also be called to seek the return of the money on grounds that the time-bar period should be excluded under the specific circumstance of the accused having enjoyed constitutional immunity for five years.
The revival of the cases by accountability courts in Pakistan on the same principle (culmination of immunity) could be used as a legal argument, even though it would be a tough call in Switzerland, said the sources, adding that Attorney General Munir A. Malik and the National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor general, K. K Agha, were fully in the loop. Mr Agha was appointed to this office by the PPP government.
The sources said the counsel were of the view that criminal cases against the PPP leader may have been time-barred in the lower courts, but the option of a civil suit in the court of appeal was still open to bring back the money kept in Swiss banks if it was in those accounts. The government will also plead that in intrastate cases the limitation could not be invoked when it was also established that the previous government had intentionally and with ulterior motive delayed the appeal despite Supreme Court orders.
In July 2011, the Rawalpindi accountability court exonerated all the co-accused in the SGS case, except for Mr Zardari. The case, filed in 1997 by the then Sharif government, accused former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Mr Zardari of receiving kickbacks in a pre-shipment contract.
In a similar case, Mr Zardari was also accused, along with others, of receiving bribe to award a contract for pre-shipment inspection at Karachi.
Last October, the Rawalpindi accountability court initiated proceedings against Mr Zardari in six corruption references after the expiry of presidential immunity on Sept 8. The proceedings were revived in compliance with the SC judgment passed in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case in Dec 2009.
While acquitting A. R. Siddiqui in the Cotecna reference on Sept 16, 2011, the Rawalpindi accountability court had also directed NAB that “the case of the accused (Asif Ali Zardari) will be taken up for trial on ceasing of the immunity. Till that time, the file is consigned to the record room after its due completion”, judge Jahandar Khan Banth had ruled.
Both the SGS and the Cotecna corruption references were initially prepared by Saifur Rehman as chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau during the second government of Nawaz Sharif. Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari were the main accused while Nusrat Bhutto, former CBR chairman A.R. Siddiqui and six directors of the Swiss company were the co-accused.
In some of the cases, Mr Zardari remains the only accused as accountability courts acquitted the other accused persons. The cases against Benazir Bhutto, Nusrat Bhutto and a former chairman of CDA, Shafi Sehwani, were dropped after their deaths.
dawn.com
Informed sources told Dawn that the law ministry was engaged in discussions with a Geneva-based law firm, Python & Peter, and an Islamabad-based firm, Amhurst Brown, to revive cases against the former president that Swiss authorities closed last year due to a time-bar.
The sources said the government’s legal minds were confident that the Swiss cases could be reopened following a Rawalpindi accountability court’s revival of cases that had been kept pending against Mr Zardari because he enjoyed presidential immunity for five years.
“The appeal could be filed in the Swiss court of appeal shortly,” said a government official. Currently, the two private law firms are reviewing “the judgments of the accountability courts in Rawalpindi acquitting the persons co-accused with Asif Ali Zardari in the SGS and Cotecna cases to firm up a future course of action,” he said.
However, Law Secretary Barrister Zafarullah said: “Not in my knowledge,” in an SMS reply when asked if the government had decided to request the reopening of the SGS and Cotecna cases in Switzerland.
The minister for law and information, Senator Pervez Rashid, did not talk in clear terms about the issue for almost a week. When contacted on Dec 23, he said: “Your information might be right, but I am not fully updated. I will get back with the latest situation tomorrow.”
Approached two days later, he said: “We have decided on oath that we will not politicise any issue. We will go by the book and keep taking steps under the law.
“We will not try to persecute anybody or try to exonerate anybody. As you may have noticed, we have initiated the cases kept pending. In case there is a matter of national interest, we will take it to parliament for a decision.”
He declined to get into the specifics: “I have not been able to consult the relevant persons so far. I have some meetings lined up now and may be able to get an update on the issue tonight or tomorrow and get back to you.” He did not do this, however.
An official said the law firm Amhurst Brown had advised the law ministry that it was “of utmost importance for the government to move fast in the national interest.”
Swiss attorneys Jacques Python and Wolfgang Peter of the firm Python & Peter have already asked the government to clear about 39,800 Swiss francs (about $45,000) in outstanding fee.
The Swiss law department informed Islamabad in October that cases against Mr Zardari in that country’s courts cannot be reopened now because the specified time had already expired earlier in February last year, and thus the cases were time-barred.
END OF IMMUNITY: But according to sources, the ministry of law believed that not only could a civil suit be filed but the jurisdiction of the Swiss court of appeal could also be called to seek the return of the money on grounds that the time-bar period should be excluded under the specific circumstance of the accused having enjoyed constitutional immunity for five years.
The revival of the cases by accountability courts in Pakistan on the same principle (culmination of immunity) could be used as a legal argument, even though it would be a tough call in Switzerland, said the sources, adding that Attorney General Munir A. Malik and the National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor general, K. K Agha, were fully in the loop. Mr Agha was appointed to this office by the PPP government.
The sources said the counsel were of the view that criminal cases against the PPP leader may have been time-barred in the lower courts, but the option of a civil suit in the court of appeal was still open to bring back the money kept in Swiss banks if it was in those accounts. The government will also plead that in intrastate cases the limitation could not be invoked when it was also established that the previous government had intentionally and with ulterior motive delayed the appeal despite Supreme Court orders.
In July 2011, the Rawalpindi accountability court exonerated all the co-accused in the SGS case, except for Mr Zardari. The case, filed in 1997 by the then Sharif government, accused former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Mr Zardari of receiving kickbacks in a pre-shipment contract.
In a similar case, Mr Zardari was also accused, along with others, of receiving bribe to award a contract for pre-shipment inspection at Karachi.
Last October, the Rawalpindi accountability court initiated proceedings against Mr Zardari in six corruption references after the expiry of presidential immunity on Sept 8. The proceedings were revived in compliance with the SC judgment passed in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case in Dec 2009.
While acquitting A. R. Siddiqui in the Cotecna reference on Sept 16, 2011, the Rawalpindi accountability court had also directed NAB that “the case of the accused (Asif Ali Zardari) will be taken up for trial on ceasing of the immunity. Till that time, the file is consigned to the record room after its due completion”, judge Jahandar Khan Banth had ruled.
Both the SGS and the Cotecna corruption references were initially prepared by Saifur Rehman as chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau during the second government of Nawaz Sharif. Ms Bhutto and Mr Zardari were the main accused while Nusrat Bhutto, former CBR chairman A.R. Siddiqui and six directors of the Swiss company were the co-accused.
In some of the cases, Mr Zardari remains the only accused as accountability courts acquitted the other accused persons. The cases against Benazir Bhutto, Nusrat Bhutto and a former chairman of CDA, Shafi Sehwani, were dropped after their deaths.
dawn.com
