Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf Friday promulgated the National Reconciliation Ordinance, the state-run PTV reported.
According to the ordinance, the federal government or a provincial government may withdraw from the prosecution of any person including an absconding accused who is found to be falsely involved for political reasons or through political victimization in any case instated first day of January, 1986 to Oct. 12, 1999 before the judgment is pronounced by a trial court.
Under the ordinance, the corruption charges former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto faces are likely to be withdrawn.
However, the amnesty of the ordinance apparently will not cover Nawaz Sharif, who served twice as the prime minister of Pakistan. After Musharraf seized power with a bloodless coup in 1999, Sharif was thrown into prison and sentenced to several life sentences for corruption, hijacking, tax evasion, embezzlement, and terrorism in2000 by Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Courts.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and its coalition partners on Tuesday endorsed the draft of the ordinance and sent it to the People's Party (PPP), which was led by Benazir Bhutto.
PPP said that some of its demands were not met in the ordinance and the talks between PPP and the government on a power-sharing deal stalled in London on Wednesday.
The draft of the ordinance was exchanged several times between the government and PPP, which made some changes to the draft of the ordinance and sent it back to the government on Thursday.
The federal cabinet on Friday held a meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and approved the final draft of the ordinance.
(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2007)
