Top court sets aside ruling by Chaudhry

Islamabad: The Supreme Court has set aside a ruling by deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry that suspended implementation of a national reconciliation ordinance.

The ordinance - issued by President Pervez Musharraf on October 5 - quashed long-pending corruption cases against holders of public office.

The ordinance was issued following negotiations with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack in Rawalpindi on December 27.

A stay order by the Chaudhry-led top court had barred accountability courts from disposing of pending cases until a final verdict on legality of the ordinance.

A Supreme Court bench headed by incumbent chief justice Abdul Hamid Dogar dismissed three petitions as their movers - including Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Pakistan Muslim League-N president Shahbaz Sharif - did not appear during the hearing of the case on Wednesday.

Adjourned

Two other petitioners, former bureaucrat Roedad Khan and ex-minister Dr. Mubbashar Hassan, were present and the hearing of their petition was adjourned indefinitely.

A number of politicians including Benazir Bhutto and her husband, now widower, Asif Ali Zardari were among the beneficiaries of the reconciliation ordinance.

The Dogar-led bench asked subordinate courts to dispose of cases according to law in the light of the relevant provisions of the ordinance.