A day after the chief of Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency told the apex court that two letters had been sent to the Swiss prosecutor and other authorities to reopen the cases, Law Secretary Aqil Mirza informed a seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry that the letters were at his home and had not been sent to Switzerland.
The chief justice then remarked that functionaries of the ministry were “not interested” in implementing the apex court’s judgment that struck down a controversial graft amnesty and directed authorities to reopen thousands of anti-corruption cases, including those against Zardari.

He asked the law secretary to complete the process for reopening the cases in Switzerland by Friday. However, Mirza sought more time for the purpose, saying it was a “sensitive matter” and he had to examine many documents. The bench accepted his plea and gave the government time till April 5 to complete the process.

Chief Justice Chaudhry directed the law secretary, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan and Abid Zubairi, counsel for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-corruption agency, to jointly resolve all issues related to reopening the Swiss cases. The bench also directed the law secretary to submit a detailed report on the matter by April 5.