ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Wednesday withdrew the contempt of court notice against Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and dismissed the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case. A five-member SC bench, headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, was informed by Law Minister Farooq H Naek that the government had dispatched a letter to the Swiss attorney general, asking for reopening the cases closed under the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance). He presented before the bench a copy of the acceptance letter sent by the Swiss authorities and requested the court to discharge contempt notice against the premier and call off proceedings against the federal government in NRO case.After reviewing the documents presented to the court, the SC dismissed the NRO implementation case and withdrew the contempt of court notice against the prime minister. The letter, for a long time, remained a bone of contention between the Supreme Court and the government, as the PPP authorities had earlier refused to write a letter to the Swiss authorities, claiming that the president had the constitutional immunity and they could not write a letter against the president. The Court, on August 8, issued a show cause notice to the prime minister under Section 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 and the Article 204 of the Constitution for defying court orders by not writing the letter to the Swiss authorities. Appearing before the court on August 27, the premier said: “I wanted to solve the matter with collective wisdom as I could not afford to linger on with this issue and like to find out why this matter is being delayed for the last two and half years.”He authorised the law minister to handle the case. The minister held meetings with judges and briefed them about concerns of the government, while preparing the draft of the letter. The court approved the draft on October 10, which was dispatched to the Swiss attorney general on November 7.The letter asked the Swiss authorities to reopen the corruption cases requested to be closed by a letter written by Malik Mohammad Qayyum, the then AG, to the Swiss attorney general on May 22, 2008. However, the new letter included a note, “This is without prejudice to the legal rights and defences of the presidents/heads of state which may be available under the law, constitution and international law.”