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'Secret' Swiss letter: contempt plea filed against Zardari

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ISLAMABAD: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday requesting contempt proceedings against President Asif Ali Zardari, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, former federal law minister Farooq H Naek and Law Secretary (r) Justice Yasmin Abbassy for secretly communicating to the Swiss authorities that the Pakistan government was not interested in pursuing the graft cases against President Zardari.

Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi filed the petition and nominated as respondents President Zardari, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Farooq H Naek and Justice Yasmin Abbassy. He stated that during the premiership of Raja Pervez Ashraf, Law Secretary Abbasy had sent a secret communication to a law firm, Fontanet Associes Geneva, for official confirmation on the Swiss authorities' inability to revive graft cases against Zardari.

The petitioner submitted that existence of the letter became public last week when Attorney General Munir A Malik informed the Supreme Court that although the PPP government had written a letter to the Swiss authorities in compliance with the court order in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case, it also sent a second secret communication to a law firm requesting an official confirmation of the Swiss authorities' inability to revive $60 million corruption cases against the president. Naqvi submitted that the communication made to the law firm was tantamount to committing contempt of court.

He contended that the purpose of the second letter was to obstruct justice and requested that President Zardari, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, former law minister Farooq H Naek and former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar be made party to the case and their names be put on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Naqvi further stated that the secret letter written to Dr Nicholas Jeanding of law firm Fontanet Associes Geneva requested explaining the position of the Pakistan government to the attorney general of Geneva that the order of closing the cases by the former attorney general had attained finality and the cases could not be reopened under the Swiss law.

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