Political turmoil continued to grip Pakistan as a top federal minister was forced to appear before a court today.
Political turmoil continued to grip Pakistan as a top federal minister was forced to appear before a court today following an arrest warrant issued against him in revived graft cases and to tackle the crisis president Asif Ali Zardari chaired a meeting of ruling PPP.
The court withdrew the non-bailable arrest warrant for federal law minister Babar Awan, a beneficiary of an amnesty scrapped by the Supreme Court, after he appeared before the judge and said he would attend future hearings of a case against him.
Awan is among several ministers who have been affected by the striking down of the NRO by the apex court.
An anti-corruption court in Karachi has directed interior minister Rehman Malik to appear before it on January 8 while authorities barred defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar from travelling to China on an official visit on Thursday after the reopening of a graft probe against him.
In a bid to head-off what could be worst political crisis of his 15-month in power, Zardari summoned a meeting of the executive committee of his ruling Pakistan People's Party to contemplate measures to save his government.
The crisis meeting took place as prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani suspended the Interior Secretary and three other officials after authorities barred defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar from travelling to China.
Gilani suspended interior secretary Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry and directed authorities to conduct an inquiry into his role in the episode, an official statement said yesterday.
The PPP also denied that any Cabinet Minister would be forced to resign as result of the Supreme Court decision.
In the fresh case of Awan, civil judicial magistrate Meher Sarfraz of the court in Rawalpindi issued the warrant against him in connection with a case registered in 1998.
Awan was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping with the intent of confining a person in the case, which was later withdrawn under the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
The case was reopened after the apex court struck down the NRO earlier this week. Awan had never appeared before the court during earlier hearings of the case.
Magistrate Sarfraz ordered police this morning to produce Awan at the next hearing.
On hearing that the judge had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for him, Awan personally went to the court and gave an undertaking that he would be present at future hearings.
The judge withdrew the warrant and granted bail to Awan after he paid a surety of Rs one lakh. The judge scheduled the next hearing of the case for December 31.
Malik, Awan and Mukhtar are close aides of president Zardari, who too was a beneficiary of the NRO.
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