Pakistani president, cabinet ministers asked to resign

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as well as opposition parties are demanding that President Asif Zardari and several ministers resign and face trials for alleged past crimes.

The call for the resignations came after some cabinet ministers were named this weekend in the Law Ministry’s list of people that have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), or an amnesty decree that dismissed their past alleged crimes.

The PPP leadership has conveyed to NRO that the beneficiary ministers should quit their offices “voluntarily before the party asks them to tender their resignations,” Pakistan’s Daily Times reported Monday, quoting a PPP source.

The PPP has also asked the concerned ministers to face their cases in courts instead of “becoming a liability to the government.”

“President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the co-chairman of the party, will continue in his office and will face the cases, as he has been doing in the past, after he leaves office,” the report said.

Even the mainstream opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) demanded Monday, during a party meeting in Lahore, that the cabinet ministers who benefited from the NRO resign from their offices. It further asked President Zardari to decide his own fate, a Press TV correspondent reported late Monday.

As Pakistan is dealing with growing militancy, the call for the resignations and trials are yet another crisis looming large over the country.