ISLAMABAD, April 3 (AFP) - Pakistan's attorney general has resigned after coming under pressure on re-opening a money laundering case against the president and while advising the government to enact an anti-graft verdict.
Anwar Mansoor stepped down one day after the supreme court directed him to sit with the law ministry and an anti-corruption watchdog to prepare a report due next Monday on efforts to re-open money laundering cases in Switzerland.
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| A security official escorts Nawid Ahsan (C), chairman of the National Accountability Bureau, as he leaves the Supreme Court building after appearing before court in Islamabad March 31, 2010. Reuters |
The government anti-corruption watchdog says it has already initiated the process, its chairman threatened with jail unless it took steps to reopen the case against President Asif Ali Zardari that involves millions of dollars.
"Yes I resigned from my post. Neither the law minister nor the law ministry were cooperating with me," Mansoor told AFP.
He said he submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, adding in English: "Whether it is accepted or not, I'm not joining".
Although Zardari is immune from prosecution while in office, the supreme court is increasing pressure on the government to reopen scores of graft cases at home and abroad, after it scrapped an amnesty shielding politicians.
Senior lawyer and former supreme court judge Tariq Mahmood said Mansoor's resignation as an "embarrassment" for the government. "The attorney general is the state's lawyer. It is embarrassing for the government that a person who is to defend them in the supreme court is not there," Mahmood told AFP. The supreme court is hearing a case on government sluggishness to enact a December 16 verdict outlawing the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) -- an amnesty that shielded Zardari and more than 8,000 people from court action.
Mansoor claimed that government machinery was not cooperating with him in carrying out his duties.
"The law ministry and the law minister were not cooperating on the implementation of NRO," Mansoor told reporters. "I needed some documents but they were not providing me."Responding to a question, he said his sincere advice to the government was "implement the verdict on the NRO."
Tainted by corruption allegations, Zardari is nicknamed "Mr Ten Percent"and spent 11 years in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder, although his supporters point out that he was never convicted on those charges.
His main ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which won elections in 2008 and returned the country to civilian rule after a 1999 military coup, has closed ranks and vowed to fight any moves to re-open cases. A Swiss prosecutor Wednesday said it would be "impossible" to reopen the case against Zardari since he benefits from immunity as a head of state. |
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