ISLAMABAD: Former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and General (r) PervezMusharraf in hot waters as Supreme Court takes up the infamous NRO deal.

SC has asked both the former Presidents to submit asset details of domesticand as well as the foreign properties in the court

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian SaqibNisar, was hearing National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case inIslamabad.

The bench said that the concerned people should present before the courtthe affidavit about their domestic and foreign properties.

Earlier, the apex court had issued notices to Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardariand the attorney general of Pakistan.

The NRO was promulgated in Oct 2007 by the government of then presidentMusharraf. Under the ordinance, cases against politicians were removed,paving the way for many to their return to the country.

On June 6, nominating Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari and former attorneygeneral Malik Abdul Qayyum as respondents, petitioner Feroz Shah Gilani hadrequested the court to order recovery of “huge amounts of public money”misappropriated and wasted by them through unlawful means “already onrecord in different judgments of the Supreme Court and high court”.

He had contended that Musharraf subverted the Constitution by declaringemergency followed by the promulgation of the NRO, through which criminaland corruption cases against politicians, including Zardari, were‘arbitrarily withdrawn’ causing huge financial losses to the nationalexchequer.

“Since the SC in its landmark judgment of December 16, 2009, had declaredthe NRO void ab initio, the respondents are liable to compensate the lossesand the damage suffered by the exchequer of debt-ridden Pakistan, includingthe loss of $60 million stashed in Swiss banks allegedly by Zardari,” hehad said.

He had said Malik Qayyum had written a letter to the attorney general forGeneva to withdraw criminal and civil proceedings against Zardari, but theSupreme Court in its 2009 judgment held that Qayyum had written the letterin his personal capacity, against the Rules of Business, 1973.