.:: SAMAA - President seeks consultation on NRO

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has started consultation with the Pakistan Peoples' Party leaders and former bureaucrats on the National Reconciliation Order Friday.

Sources said that former bureaucrats and senators think that the president should be powerful and should avenge the failure of the implementation of the NRO. This group thinks that the president should not be separated from his office.

On the other hand, another group comprising the Prime Minister Syed Raza Gilani and some other ministers, is busy contacting political parties. This group also wants some changes in the present cabinet and want to assure appointments to be made on merit.

Sources said that President Zardari has not decided anything yet.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has also been requested to play his due role in the NRO issue, but he has not shown his stance clearly as yet.

NA COMMITTEE APPROVES NRO

The National Assembly Committee on Law and Justice has approved the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) Friday (October 31, 2009).

One part of the NRO has been approved which indicates that the NRO has come into force from October 5, 2007. The beneficiaries of the NRO have full legal security. MQM and the PML-Q members who have the same opinion did not participate in the NRO voting.

The seven members of the committee favored the approved part of the NRO while six opposed it. The cases filed on the basis of the political rivalry from 1986 to 1999 would be suspended on the basis of the second part of the NRO. In the third part, it is said that the presiding officer will provide the certified copy of voting to the returning officer. The two parts along with part four and five of the establishment of the disciplinary committee and its permission for arresting the parliamentarians have been suspended. The seventh part of the NRO has been amended.

Muslim League-Nawaz boycotted the voting on the basis of part seven of the NRO.

Earlier, the PML-Q also walked out of the voting on not getting the list of the people who did not favour the NRO. SAMAA