Court hears pleas on expired amnesty

Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court began hearing petitions Monday against an expired amnesty that had protected President Asif Ali Zardari and key allies from graft charges, a case that could lead to legal challenges to the leader's rule.

A ruling against Zardari, whom opinion polls show to be unpopular, risks political turmoil just as the Obama administration and other Western allies want Pakistan to redouble its fight against Al Qaida and the Taliban near the Afghan border.

The 17-member bench in Islamabad started hearing petitions claiming that the amnesty list of more than 8,000 people was illegal. Civil rights activists argue that it was unjust to help so many politicians escape prosecution for alleged wrongdoing.

Zardari, who has denied a slew of corruption claims against him, enjoys general immunity from prosecution as president, but the Supreme Court could choose to challenge his eligibility for the post if the amnesty is declared illegal.

Legal and political analysts are divided on whether this is likely, and most expect the process to take several months to run its course.

Risk

Even some of Zardari's critics argue it would be a mistake because it risks derailing the country's transition to democratic rule after nine years under military ruler General Pervez Musharraf..

The session came two weeks after the expiration of the amnesty, which had been granted in a US-backed deal by Musharraf to allow Zardari's late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to return from exile in 2007 and run for office safe in the knowledge she would not be dogged by corruption allegations that had forced her from office twice in the 1990s.

Forced to abandon

Speculation over Zardari's future has escalated after he was forced to abandon an effort to get Parliament to approve the amnesty. He is under pressure to resign or relinquish sweeping powers he inherited from Musharraf to the prime minister and assume a ceremonial role.

Dr Mubashar Hassan, a prominent politician and one of the petitioners against the National Reconciliation Ordinance, as the amnesty was formally known, said all involved in corruption cases should be fairly tried and jailed if convicted regardless of political affiliation.

"It is time to begin an operation to clean up Pakistan," he said. "The ruling class... should be swept away so that a new era can begin."