Zardari challenges Supreme Court order
Seeking details of foreign assets is against fundamental rights, petition says
Former president Asif Ali Zardari has filed a petition challenging the Supreme Court’s order of August 29, seeking details of his foreign assets as well as those of his assassinated wife and former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Through his counsel Farooq H. Naek, the Pakistan People’s Party leader argued that such details had nothing to do with the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case and were against his fundamental rights.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar has taken up for hearing a petition filed by president of the Lawyers Foundation for Justice, Feroz Shah Gilani.
Swiss accounts
The court had asked Zardari to submit an affidavit highlighting details of foreign assets and bank accounts, including Swiss accounts, belonging to him, his slain wife, children (Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari) and other dependants. Gilani’s petition seeks recovery of public funds allegedly wasted in the backdrop of the NRO in 2007.
He has cited Zardari, former president Pervez Musharraf and former Attorney General Malik Qayyum as respondents in the case.
Burden of proof
In his petition, Zardari argued that the August 29 court order had erroneously shifted the burden of proof to Zardari, asking him to prove his innocence.
“This is something that my client has done time and again and even he has been acquitted multiple times on merit,” the petition by Zardari says.
Naek says the petition filed by Gilani does not fall within the purview of Article 184(3) of the Constitution and that the court is asking for the details for a period spanning more than a decade.