Pakistani Supreme Court threatens to imprison head of anti-corruption agency over delays

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Pakistani Supreme Court ups pressure on government

ISLAMABAD — The Supreme Court threatened to imprison the head of Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency Tuesday, as the government failed to meet a 24-hour deadline to reopen a slew of graft cases, including several against the president.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry gave Naveed Ahsan another 24 hours to implement the court’s order or be held in contempt. Ahsan responded with a written promise to reopen the cases, including one in which President Asif Ali Zardari is alleged to have stolen $60 million in the 1990s and deposited the sum in Swiss bank accounts.

“It is your duty to chase this money,” Chaudhry told Ahsan, the head of the National Accountability Bureau, during a court hearing. “This money belongs to the nation. This is not anyone’s personal property.”

The president has a strained relationship with the judiciary, stemming from his delay in reinstating the chief justice, who had been dismissed by Musharraf — a move that only heightened public anger against the former general and energized protests against his rule.

Zardari promised to return Chaudhry to office once in power, but resisted for six months until he was forced to act by opposition-led protests.

The court’s efforts to reopen thousands of corruption cases against politicians, bureaucrats and party workers dating back to the 1990s has exacerbated the tense personal relationship between Zardari and the chief justice. The court in December revoked an amnesty issued by former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that protected the defendants, setting off the current conflict.

The growing dispute has sparked concern in Washington, which wants Pakistan to remain focused on battling Taliban and al-Qaida militants, including those staging cross-border attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistani fighter jets bombed several militant hide-outs in the Orakzai tribal region near the Afghan border Tuesday, killing at least 41 suspected insurgents, said local government official Sami Ullah. The remote, dangerous nature of the region makes it nearly impossible to verify the government’s accounts of the fighting.

The government has shown some signs of cooperation with the Supreme Court. Responding to a court order, police on Tuesday detained a senior law enforcement officer convicted of corruption eight years ago, the first arrest since the court declared the amnesty issued by Musharraf unconstitutional.

Ahmad Riaz Sheikh, one of the top officials at the Federal Investigation Agency, received a 14-year prison sentence in 2002 that was reduced to five years on appeal. But his sentence was waived after Musharraf issued the amnesty in 2007, and he was promoted within the agency — a fact that did not sit well with the court.

“We have taken him (Sheikh) into custody,” police official Mohammad Sadaqat told reporters outside the court. “We will further proceed as per the law.”

But the government has responded more slowly on other cases, including those that involve Zardari.

The case involving the $60 million allegedly stolen by Zardari requires the government to ask Swiss authorities to reopen a money laundering suit against the president. But the government has argued that Zardari enjoys immunity as president and has not acted.

That may change with the court’s recent order.

“I feel that a letter has to be written (to Swiss authorities) by tomorrow,” the deputy of the anti-corruption agency, Raja Amir Abbas, told Geo TV when asked about the case. He said the letter would be routed through the Foreign Ministry.

It is unclear whether the Swiss will reopen the case and how the Pakistani government would respond if they did.

Musharraf introduced the original amnesty as part of a U.S.-backed deal to allow Zardari’s wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to return from self-imposed exile in 2007. Bhutto was killed in December of that year, and Zardari took over the party afterward.

Associated Press Writer Hussain Afzal contributed to this report from Parachinar.