ISLAMABAD -- Several corruption and criminal cases pending against President Asif Ali Zardari are likely to be reopened Saturday after the expiration of a controversial amnesty agreement, creating fresh political turmoil in Pakistan.

The National Reconciliation Ordinance was introduced in December 2007 as part of a deal between then-President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and wife of Mr. Zardari who was later slain by a suicide bomber. It allowed Mrs. Bhutto and Mr. Zardari to return to Pakistan from abroad and not face charges that had been pending against them. It also offered amnesty to some key ministers in the current government who faced corruption and other charges of their own.

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Associated Press

Demonstrators in Multan, Pakistan, this month protest an amnesty agreement that protects some political leaders from corruption cases.

Earlier this year the Supreme Court said the decree had to be ratified by Parliament to have continued effect and set Nov. 28 as the ratification date; otherwise, the amnesty would lapse under the court's ruling. The government failed in recent weeks to get that ratification, and the decree is expected to lapse Saturday. A lapse could revive more than a half-dozen corruption and other criminal cases against the president.

Mr. Zardari's aides say the cases were politically motivated. "All those cases were fabricated to victimize our party leaders," said Qamar Zaman Kaira, the federal information minister. As president, Mr. Zardari enjoys immunity from being tried by any court of law; he began his five-year term in the summer of 2008. Still, the Supreme Court could choose to challenge his eligibility for the post since the amnesty agreement was never passed into law.

Mr. Zardari this week accused the opposition of running a smear campaign against him and trying to destabilize his elected government. "People have elected us, and I am not going to give in to the pressure of those who want to derail the democratic process," he said in a telephone address to a party rally in Karachi.

The issue is threatening his standing within his own party -- and could add to his already considerable unpopularity with voters. There are signs that some within the Pakistan People's Party, of which Mr. Zardari is co-chairman, are uncomfortable with his performance, and the lapse of the ordinance may add to their misgivings.

"There is a growing feeling in the party that the government has failed to fulfill its promises," said Nabeel Gabol, a federal deputy minister for port and shipping.

Last week, Mr. Zardari faced criticism from members at a meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee, according to two participants. "Members for the first time spoke up against the government's policies and rampant corruption," said Safdar Abbasi, a senator who was present.

Farhatullah Babar, chief spokesman for Mr. Zardari, said in response: "The members freely express their views. There has been an allegation of corruption against some ministers in the past, but they proved wrong."

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also has hinted at sacking ministers and officials who face trial if corruption cases are reopened against them. "No one is above the law," he said.

Mr. Zardari, who was minister for investment in his wife's government in 1993 to 1996, spent almost eight years in prison facing trial on several corruption and three murder charges before being freed in 2004 by a court on bail.

He also faced trial on a money-laundering charge by a Swiss court that was withdrawn at the request of the Pakistani government days before his election as the country's president.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A8