It was Benazir Bhutto who had wanted to make a deal with President Pervez Musharraf in the form of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) so that all the cases against her and against other members of the PPP could be withdrawn. This was stated by a spokesman of the APML here on Friday.
The APML spokesman was commenting on the remarks made by the Chief Justice of Pakistan on the review petition submitted by the government in the Supreme Court regarding the NRO. The chief justice had said that Benazir Bhutto was never interested in the NRO deal. The APML spokesman emphasised that the NRO was drawn up on Benazir Bhutto's demand and not that of Pervez Musharraf's who had only agreed to promulgate the NRO as Benazir was still the chairperson of the largest party in the country and her people still wanted her to lead them.
The APML spokesman said the NRO came about as none of the cases registered by the Nawaz Sharif government against Benazir Bhutto could be proven in Pakistani and international courts and not a single sentence had been passed against her by any court. What had further prompted the creation of the NRO was the desire of the PML (Q) leadership to patch up with the PPP, the APML spokesman said.-PR