Has Supreme Court verdict on NRO hurt government? Counsel offers no plausible answer

The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the government on Tuesday to explain in writing how federation was adversely affected by SC verdict on National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). A 17-member full bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has been hearing the government's plea for review petition against the verdict that declared NRO void ab initio in 2009.
The Chief Justice observed that the SC had in fact supported the government by delivering a verdict against the 'black law' along with other corruption cases. During the course of hearing, the bench asked Babar Awan, federation's counsel, to identify a single para of the verdict, which had gone against the government. The bench also observed that no law could be made anywhere in the world to protect corruption and looting.
The bench revealed that under the Constitution no political party was a federation and questioned whether the federation wanted to protect the people involved in criminal cases by protecting the NRO. The bench noted that the government did not fear the NRO verdict, rather it feared its effects.
"When no convict benefited from NRO came to the court against the NRO verdict, then why federation is defending this stinking and black law," the court noted. On this occasion, Dr Babar Awan argued that the court had no authority to order the re-opening of cases abroad. He prayed to remove the words about the late Benazir Bhutto in its verdict.
Awan submitted that all the political parties benefited from the NRO, adding that the law was promulgated by the then president under the law. Awan pleaded that the PML-N government in 1999 through its Attorney General sent letters to Swiss government to re-open money laundering cases against PPP co-chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari.
Awan told the bench that when hearing of the NRO case was in progress, Kamal Azfar, the then counsel for the federation, had apprehended the interference of General Head Quarters (GHQ) and the CIA. He said the threats received by Azfar from Abu Bakar Zardari were of minor nature. Justice Nasirul Mulk pointed out that Azfar had withdrawn his concerns very next day.
Justice Tariq Parvez insisted that the counsel must inform the bench about the para of the NRO verdict, a single word or the entire content that had hurt the federation. The Chief Justice remarked that almost all the judges on the bench asked Awan to identify a single anti federation word in the NRO judgement, however, he failed to this effect.
"Federation is the representative of all the people of the country," Babar Awan submitted. "It means federation protects every criminal and corrupt," Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa said in his remarks. Babar Awan submitted that neither any referendum over the NRO was held in the parliament, nor any corrupt person protected under it.
He said martial law ended through the NRO. He said no individual from PPP fled the courts' proceedings, while everyone knew who fled the courts. Awan added NRO was not an agreement between the two persons- Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto- rather it was aimed at restoring democracy in the country. The hearing was adjourned till November 23.