Pakistani President Zardari says ready to face challenges

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- In reaction to Pakistan's Supreme Court's decision to revoke the amnesty deal, Pakistani President Zardari said Thursday that he is ready to face all kinds of challenges, local TV channel reported.

Speaking to a delegation of journalists at the presidency, Zardari said he is ready to face all the challenges in the same way as former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his wife, the slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto faced them, the private TV channel DAWN News reported.

Pakistan's Supreme Court nullified on Wednesday the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that had given Zardari and thousands of other government officials amnesty from prosecution on corruption charges, a decision that could reopen charges against Zardari.

While being reluctant to take questions about the current situation in the country, Zardari said he has been making efforts to change attitudes in the country. He said that he wanted to save Pakistan from turning into another Afghanistan.

The President gave no indication about his future course of action.

The Supreme Court also ordered the Pakistani government to inform Swiss authorities that a case against Zardari there may be reopened. Swiss judicial authorities said in Aug. 2008 that they had closed a money-laundering case against Zardari and had released 60 million U.S. dollars frozen in Swiss accounts for a decade.

According local channel reports, Swiss justice ministry said that there is no case against Zardari in Switzerland unless the Pakistani government initiate inquiry.

The NRO, which was issued by the former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007 as part of a political deal to allow Benazir Bhutto to return from years of exile to Pakistan, was challenged in the Supreme Court and a 17-member bench of the apex court in a unanimous short verdict cancelled the NRO and described as contrary to the constitution.

In November 2009, Government of Pakistan released the list of the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance on the directives of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.

State Minister for Law Afzal Sindhu in a news conference said that a total of 8,041 people including 34 politicians, bureaucrats and three ambassadors took benefit from the ordinance.