ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was shocked to hear from Attorney General Munir A Malik on Wednesday that the previous government without the court's knowledge had sent a second letter to the Swiss authorities asking them to shun cases against President Zardari.

During proceedings of the NRO implementation case before the apex court, the Attorney General informed the bench that former Law Secretary Yasmin Abbasi had sent second letter to Swiss authorities on November 22, 2012, stating that the government was not interested in pursuing cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and urged the Swiss authorities to close the cases.

The first letter was sent to Swiss authorities on November 5, 2012, the draft of which was seen and approved by the apex court.

The attorney general informed the apex court that the cases were closed by Swiss authorities on 4 February this year.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered an inquiry into the second letter which, according to him had rendered the first letter redundant.

Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry remarked that those responsible should be held accountable and would face contempt proceedings.

On this AG Munir Malik told the court that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry of the incident.