Islamabad: The letter to Swiss authorities asking to reopen graft cases against Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has been written and sent through the Foreign Office on November 5.
After months of sparring, the executive and the judiciary deadlock saw a breakthrough in September, when Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf agreed to write the letter, and assigned the task to Law Minister Farooq H Naek, reports The Express Tribune.
After weeks of delay and corrections, the Supreme Court had approved the Swiss letter draft submitted on October 10.
On the appeal of Law Minister Farooq H Naek, the federation was given till November 10 to send the letter to Swiss authorities.
Ashraf had directed Naek to dispatch the letter, indicating further progress since the apex court gave the government draft of the letter a final nod.
Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir, however, had said one day earlier that he had not yet received any directions to write the letter to Swiss authorities.
The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder 12 million dollars allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.
The Swiss shelved the case in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government had been insisting that the president has full immunity. But in 2009 the apex court overturned the NRO ordering that the cases be reopened.
ANI
First Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2012, 19:59