Gilani defends not tabling NRO in parliament

Islamabad, Nov 3 : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday defended the government's decision not to table the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in parliament for ratification.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Gilani said the government has not made NRO a matter of ego and that the government remains committed to abolishing the 17th amendment and Article 58-2(b), the Dawn newspaper reported on its website.

He said the NRO was not brought to the house due to the parliamentarians' reservations. Gilani reiterated the government is still committed to the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

The NRO, issued by former president Pervez Musharraf, scrapped all corruption cases against politicians and bureaucrats filed between January 1986 and October 1999, on the grounds that they may have been politically motivated.

The ordinance allowed Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari to return to Pakistan.

However, in July this year, Pakistan's supreme court ruled the NRO had to be ratified by parliament within four months, failing which the ordinance would lapse, allowing cases against politicians to be reopened.

But the opposition threatened a countrywide protest if the NRO was taken to parliament, forcing the prime minister to abandon the move, media reports said. More worrying, the ruling party's main ally threatened that its members would not support the bill.

The damage for President Asif Ali Zardari could be more significant. He's already under pressure to resign for failing to revoke sweeping presidential powers that include the right to dissolve parliament. His isolation within his own party has also been growing, according to media reports.

--IANS