ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: A group of eminent citizens including retired generals, judges and bureaucrats has written a letter to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani seeking a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)-like relief for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The group observed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s disqualification was not sought by the current government or the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) because it was the federation which had filed the appeal against the verdict of the Lahore High Court and requested the prime minister to advice President Asif Ali Zardari to exercise his powers under the constitution so as to efface the convictions unjustly imposed on Nawaz Sharif during the period of the rule of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

This would reduce the developing political tension that has the potential of de-railing the democratic dispensation, the letter stated, according to Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat), under whose auspices the letter communiqué had been drafted.

The group also urgently sought that the attorney general of Pakistan should be asked by the prime minister to “obtain an adjournment of the case in the Supreme Court for attaining the objective of reconciliation which is the hope and desire of the teeming millions of Pakistan.

The group asked the prime minister to resolve the current political crisis through political means within the parameters of the Constitution of Pakistan and not unduly burden the judiciary with such issues.

Most of the signatories of the communiqué are the same who had addressed a letter to Gen Pervez Musharraf in July 2006 asking him to relinquish his position as army chief. They include Arif Nizami, editor, the Nation; Lt-Gen (retired) Asad Durrani, former director-general, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi, defence and political analyst; Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani, chairman, Gallup Pakistan; Khalid Aziz, former chief secretary; Javed Jabbar, former federal minister; Justice (retired) Khalilur Rehman, former judge, Supreme Court; Lt-Gen (retired) Moinuddin Haider, former Sindh governor; Mujibur Rehman Shami, editor Daily Pakistan; Justice (retired) Nasira Iqbal, former judge, Lahore High Court; Dr Parvez Hassan, advocate, Supreme Court; Rustam Shah Mohmand, former interior secretary; Shafqat Mahmood, former federal minister; Shahid Hamid, former Punjab governor; Shamshad Ahmad, former foreign secretary; Lt-Gen (retired) Talat Masood, defence and security analyst; Tasneem Noorani, former federal secretary; Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director Pildat and Aasiya Riaz, joint director, Pildat.

“We have been drawn together, once again, at this crucial moment in our nation’s history by a deep concern for the dangers posed to our country and its nascent democratic system by the growing divide between the mainstream political forces. This danger and this divide will be sharply accentuated if, as is widely expected, Nawaz Sharif is disqualified from holding political office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

In view of the existing issues and crises in the country, noted the group, including “insurgency in Fata, Swat and parts of Balochistan, sectarian issues in Hangu, Parachinar and other areas, high rates of inflation in the prices of food and other essential commodities, shortages of fuel, power and gas and deteriorating law and order throughout Pakistan, we cannot afford further aggravation of problems that can be solved by adherence to the principles contained in the Charter of Democracy,” the letter said.

Earlier Pildat also appointed Harvard-educated Dr Tariq Hasan, advocate, Supreme Court; and Babar Sattar, lawyer, as the honorary trial observers of the ongoing case in the Supreme Court examining the eligibility of Nawaz Sharif, the two-time former prime minister and leader of Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) and Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab chief minister and PML-N’s president.