Pak Prez uses power of pardon to save minister friend

May 19, 2010 - Shafqat Ali |

Islamabad

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari early Tuesday morning exploited his country’s Constitution to pardon convicted interior minister Rehman Malik.
Mr Malik was convicted in 2004 by an accountability court. On Monday the Lahore high court dismissed his appeal. The LHC order exposed Mr Malik to arrest but Mr Zardari, a close friend of the interior minister, used his powers to rescue him. According to a press release issued after Monday midnight, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the pardon was granted under Article 45 of the Pakistan Constitution on the advice of the Prime Minister tendered late Monday night.
Mr Babar said Mr Malik had been sentenced in absentia to three years’ imprisonment in each of the two references. His appeals had been rejected. He said Mr Rehman Malik has maintained that he has been victimised during his absence from Pakistan under a law specially crafted by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to victimise political opponents.
The National Accounabi-lity Bureau took no immediate step to arrest Mr Malik after the restoration of his conviction. Under the law, it is the interior ministry, which Mr Malik heads, that recommends cases for presidential pardon. The interior minister was in Karachi when the LHC rejected his appeal. He consulted the President and it was decided to resort to a presidential pardon to avert arrest.

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