Islamabad: Facing immense pressure from the Supreme Court to revive graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said the judiciary should let Parliament decide the Presidential immunity issue.
In a reply submitted to the apex court over his indictment for contempt for failing to act on its orders to reopen corruption cases against Zardari in Switzerland, Gilani asked how the President of a sovereign country could be put at the mercy of a magistrate of a Western country? Noting that the Supreme Court had referred cases regarding the procedure for appointing judges under the recent 18th Constitutional amendment to Parliament, he said in his 24-page reply that the issue of the immunity guaranteed to the President under the Constitution too should be referred to Parliament.
Gilani’s response was submitted by his legal team two days before a seven-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk resumes hearing the contempt of court case against the Premier.
The same bench has set March 21 as the deadline for Gilani to approach Swiss authorities for reopening the graft cases against Zardari.
The bench had on March 8 issued an order that directed Gilani to write to Swiss authorities on reviving the cases without waiting for advice from his experts. In his response, the Premier asked the bench to take back the March 8 order that was passed in his absence. (PTI)