what is NRO?

[Almaas Ruby]

what is NRO?

please elaborate the importance of NRO with respect to LAW and ORDER in Pakistan. Its impact on pakistan in all ways.

[Saleeqa Batool]

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION ORDINANCE
October 5, 2007
AN ORDINANCE to promote national reconciliation

WHEREAS it is expedient to promote national reconciliation, foster mutual trust and confidence amongst holders of public office and remove the vestiges of political vendetta and victimization, to make the election process more transparent and to amend certain laws for that purpose and for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto;-

AND WHEREAS the National Assembly is not in session and the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action;

NOW, THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 89 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the President is pleased to make and promulgate the following Ordinance;-


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Short title and commencement.
(1) This Ordinance may be called the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007.

(2) It shall come into force at once.


2. Amendment of section 494, Act V of 1898.
In the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898), section 494 shall be renumbered as sub-section (1) thereof and after sub-section (1) renumbered as aforesaid, the following sub-section (2) and (3) shall be added, namely:-
(2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in sub-section(1), the Federal Government or a Provincial Government may, before the judgment is pronounced by a trial court, withdraw from the prosecution of any person including an absconding accused who is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimization in any case initiated between 1st day of January, 1986 to 12th day of October, 1999 and upon such withdrawal clause (a) and clause (b) of sub-section (1) shall apply.

(3) For the purposes of exercise of powers under sub-section (2) the Federal Government and the Provincial Government may each constitute a Review Board to review the entire record of the case and furnish recommendations as to their withdrawal or otherwise.

(4) The Review Board in case of Federal Government shall be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court with Attorney-General and Federal Law Secretary as its members and in case of Provincial Government it shall be headed by a retired judge of the High Court with Advocate-General and/or Prosecutor-General and Provincial Law Secretary as its members.

(5) A review Board undertaking review of a case may direct the Public Prosecutor or any other concerned authority to furnish to it the record of the case.


3. Amendment of section 39, Act LXXXV of 1976.
(1) In the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (LXXXV of 1976), in section 39, after sub-section (6), the following new sub-section (7) shall be added, namely:-
(7) After consolidation of results the Returning Officer shall give to such contesting candidates and their election agents as are present during the consolidation proceedings, a copy of the result of the count notified to the Commission immediately against proper receipt and shall also post a copy thereof to the other candidates and election agents.


4. Amendment of section 18, Ordinance XVIII of 1999.
In the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (XVIII of 1999), hereinafter referred to as the said Ordinance, in section 18, in clause (e), for the full stop at the end a colon shall be substituted and thereafter the following proviso shall be added, namely:-
Provided that no sitting member of Parliament or a Provincial Assembly shall be arrested without taking into consideration the recommendations of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Ethics referred to in clause (aa) or Special Committee of the Provincial Assembly on Ethics referred to in clause (aaa) of section 24, respectively.

5. Amendment of section 24, Ordinance XVIII of 1999.
In the said ordinance, in section 24,- (i) in clause (a) for the full stop at the end a colon shall be substituted and thereafter the following proviso shall be inserted, namely.-
Provided that no sitting member of Parliament or a Provincial Assembly shall be arrested without taking into consideration the recommendations of Special Parliamentary Committee on Ethics or Special Committee of the Provincial Assembly on Ethics referred to in clause (aa) and (aaa), respectively, before which the entire material and evidence shall be placed by the chairman, NAB.
; and
(ii) after clause (a), amended as aforesaid, the following new clauses (aa) and (aaa) shall be inserted, namely;-
(aa) The Special Parliamentary Committee on Ethics referred to in the proviso to clause (a) above shall consist of a chairman who shall be a member of either House of Parliament and eight members each from the National Assembly and Senate to be selected by the Speaker, National Assembly and Chairman Senate, respectively, on the recommendations of Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition of their respective Houses, with equal representation from both sides.

(aaa) The Special Committee of the provincial Assembly on Ethics shall consist of a Chairman and eight members to be selected by the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly on the recommendation of Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition, with equal representation from both sides.



6. Amendment of section 31A, Ordinance XVIII of 1999.
In the said Ordinance, in section 31A, in clause (a), for the full stop at the end a colon shall be substituted and thereafter the following new clause (aa) shall be inserted, namely:-
(aa) An order or judgment passed by the Court in absentia against an accused is void ab initio and shall not be acted upon.


7. Insertion of new section, Ordinance, XVIII of 1999.
In the said Ordinance, after section 33, the following new section shall be inserted, namely:-
33A. Withdrawal and termination of prolonged pending proceedings initiated prior to 12th October, 1999.
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Ordinance or any other law for the time being in force, proceedings under investigation or pending in any court including a High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan initiated by or on a reference by the National Accountability Bureau inside or outside Pakistan including proceedings continued under section 33, requests for mutual assistance and civil party to proceedings initiated by the Federal Government before the 12th day of October, 1999 against holders of public office stand withdrawn and terminated with immediate effect and such holders of public office shall also not be liable to any action in future as well under this Ordinance for acts having been done in good faith before the said date;
Provided that those proceedings shall not be withdrawn and terminated which relate to cases registered in connection with the cooperative societies and other financial and investment companies or in which no appeal, revision or constitutional petition has been filed against final judgment and order of the Court or in which an appellate or revisional order or an order in constitutional petition has become final or in which voluntary return or plea bargain has been accepted by the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau under section 25 or recommendations of the Conciliation Committee have been accepted by the Governor, State bank of Pakistan under section 25A.

(2) No action or claim by way of suit, prosecution, complaint or other civil or criminal proceeding shall lie against the Federal, Provincial or Local Government, the National Accountability Bureau or any of their officers and functionaries for any act or thing done or intended to be done in good faith pursuant to the withdrawal and termination of cases under sub-section (1) unless they have deliberately misused authority in violation of law.

[Almaas Ruby]

@saleeqa batool

thanks sis, thanks alot.


@ all

pls i request others to share ur views on the topic.

regards!!

[SAJID A.BALOCH]

The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was issued by the former president of Pakistan General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007.

It granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money-laundering, murder and terrorism between 1st January 1986 and October 12th 1999. The NRO states:

"Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in sub-section(1), the Federal Government or a Provincial Government may, before the judgment is pronounced by a trial court, withdraw from the prosecution of any person including an absconding accused who is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimization in any case initiated between 1st day of January, 1986 to 12th day of October, 1999 and upon such withdrawal clause (a) and clause (b) of sub-section (1) shall apply."

The former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, suspended this ordinance on October 12, 2007.[2] But he was soon dismissed after Musharraf abrogated the constitution on November 3, 2007. The new Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Dogar revived the NRO on February 27, 2008.

Reasons:

It has been widely believed that the act was a measure to allow the Late Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to return to Pakistan without any legal consequences due to pending corruption cases. However, Musharraf had claimed that it was necessary to build a reconcilliatory theme in the political arena with the removal of such politically motivated cases. Musharraf stated in an interview that cases had been in the courts for a decade without any judgement being passed and were hampering political progress of virtually all political parties.
Link:wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconciliation_Ordinance

[Saleeqa Batool]

The tranparency and reliability of political trials alwayes remained questionable in the eyes of public and was percieved as a victimization tool in the hand of rulers.The history of exploiting legal procedures for political benefit can be traced from the early years of history of Pakistan.Malik Ghulam Muhammad and Sikandar mirza misutilized this tool to strengthen their grip on the power.

Gen Ayub Khan introduced EBDO(Elective Bodies disqualification Ordinance) under which main stream political leadership of that time was made ineligible to participate in the electroal process.But this ordinance became a dead letter when Ayub's Govt went to hot waters.

Bhotoo Sb also used this tool to some extent against NAP and other opponents.(The case of theft of buffalow against Ch. Zahoor Ilahi attained wider publicity that time)

The thirld military dictator ,Zia Ul Haq ,went to the last extent of cruelity to crush the opponents by hook or by crook and judical institutions played in his hands even in process of killing the innocent people by a judicial process.

Benazir and Nawaz sharif could not discontinue this practice.During his second tenure, Mian Nawaz Sharif made utmost effort to oust BB from Political Process and used back stair influence on the high court judges to convict her guilty and unfortunately Judicary again fell pray to political influence.BB and her husband were declared ineligible to take part in political process.Afterwards a Tape recording of the bench comprizing of Justice Rashid Aziz and Malik Qayom in which both the judges were assuring thier loyality to Mian Nawaz Sharif,was publicized that forced them to leave their offices.

And last but not the least,the fourth dictator Mushraf,darkened the pages of political history and manouvered with Litigation to destabilise the main political forces.The notorious NAB was used to threaten the political figures for the changie of political affililiations.

Now coming to NRO, it was the result of a negotiation process between BB and Pervaiz Mushraf underwhich the political cases regestered since 1985 were withdrawn. Its major beneficies included MQM , the former ruling couple alongwith other political giants .before promulgation of NRO in 2007 ,11 criminal cases were being prosecuted against Asif Ali Zardari from 1990 but court could givce its verdict in only one case that proved a baised and partial afterwards.The punishment announced in this case was annuled by the supremecourt.Inspite of insufficiency of proofs ,Asif Ali zardari remained in jail for period of 13 years?? and he could not be convicted under even a single case?Is it justice?The incumbent Chief Justice refused to hear bail petition of Zardari for 14 months?I am not supporting any one.If some one has commited offence then he or she must be convicted?Why our courts could not announce any verdict for 11 years?Justice delayed is justice denied and this has happened in our country.

NRO is again being used a political tool for point scoring?it is unethical and unfair.No one is clean here?Judicail decsions are being announced for personal publicity?May God Bless this nation.