End to amnesty prompts calls for Pakistan president to resign

Dec 17, 2009, 9:48 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari and several of his lieutenants faced a slew of calls Thursday to resign and stand in the dock after a Supreme Court ruling scrapped an amnesty shielding them from corruption charges.

A debate has started in Pakistani politics about the fate of more than 8,000 people, including Zardari and some key ministers, who benefited from the amnesty decree issued by former military strongman Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistani newspapers applauded the decision late Wednesday with the popular English-language daily The News describing it as 'a historic verdict correcting a historic wrong.'

The unanimous ruling by a 17-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry is seen as a major blow to the increasingly unpopular Zardari, who recently surrendered some sweeping powers to lessen his opposition.

Zardari's office provides him immunity from prosecution, but his eligibility for the presidency may be challenged over several graft charges, which he said were politically motivated.

Although never convicted in Pakistan, Zardari has spent about 11 years in prison.

Opposition parties and critics want Zardari to resign, at least until he is proven not guilty in the now-revived cases.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the main opposition group, officially asked Zardari to decide 'the best option for him,' but some of its leaders, including Khwaja Asif and Siddiqul Farooq, openly said the president must quit.

However, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar had said Zardari would not step down, asserting he was protected by his constitutional immunity.

'We know how to face challenges, and we have faced them in the past,' Babar told reporters Wednesday. 'We have no worries.'

The Dawn newspaper said in an editorial that people whose cases had been reopened must face the courts.

'There is no dictator on the scene, no kangaroo courts, no government that is bent on eliminating its rivals politically - in short, there is no excuse for the defendants to avoid seeking what they have claimed justice ought to give them,' Dawn said.

Former president Musharraf issued a decree called the National Reconciliation Ordinance in October 2007 under a reported power-sharing arrangement with Zardari's late wife and former premier Benazir Bhutto.

After a promulgation of the ordinance, Bhutto ended her self-imposed exile to run for elections but was assassinated in December 2007 before they took place.

Zardari led her Pakistan People's Party to victory in the February 2008 elections and became president when Musharraf left the office under threats of impeachment later in the year.

The brewing political upheaval has taken Pakistan by storm at a time when the United States is pressing its key ally to focus on the fight against its Islamist insurgency.

After announcing a new Afghan strategy, US President Barack Obama's administration wants Pakistan to expand the military offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants mostly operating from Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

On Thursday morning, a suspected US drone attack in the troubled region killed at least one militant.

The missiles strike targeted a vehicle in Gadakai village, 35 kilometers west of the North Waziristan district's main town of Miranshah.

Pakistan publicly condemns US aerial raids, saying they are counterproductive but also takes out several al-Qaeda members off and on. One such assault killed Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in August.