Islamabad: Angered by his defiance of its order to reopen graft cases against the President, Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday summoned Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani to appear before it on February 13 when it will charge him with contempt, a move which may trigger a fresh political crisis.
If 59-year-old Gilani is convicted in the contempt case, he will be disqualified from holding any public office for five years. He will also have the right to appeal any order convicting him within a period of 30 days.
A 7-judge apex court bench led by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk issued the order against Gilani after an intense hearing, during which the Premier’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said that Gilani had not committed contempt by not acting on the apex court’s orders as President Asif Ali Zardari had complete immunity from prosecution within Pakistan and abroad.
“We are satisfied that prima facie there is a case for further proceeding into the matter. Adjourned for February 13, for framing charges. Prime minister is required to remain present in the court,” Mulk said.
The court’s move is likely to plunge Gilani’s already fragile government into a deeper crisis and lead to early polls. The elections in Pakistan are scheduled for 2013.
“The court has ordered the framing of charges against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for contempt of court on February 13. He will be present in court,” Ahsan told reporters outside the Supreme Court. “My advice to my client will be to appeal the decision but he will have to decide… We have the option to appeal,” Ahsan said in response to questions from journalists.
If an intra-court appeal is filed, an appellate bench could decide to suspend the order, Ahsan said. Gilani had personally appeared before the bench when it first took up the contempt case on January 19 but he was exempted from further hearings.
The Supreme Court has been pressuring the government to reopen cases of alleged money laundering against Zardari in Switzerland after it struck down the National Reconciliation Ordinance, a graft amnesty passed by former President Pervez Musharraf, in December 2009.
Zardari and his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, have been accused of laundering about USD 12 million in Swiss banks after they allegedly accepted bribes from firms seeking customs inspection contracts in Pakistan in 1990s.
In his arguments, Ahsan contended that the Premier had done nothing wrong by deciding not to act on the court’s order to reopen graft cases against Zardari. Ahsan, one of Pakistan’s top legal minds, and the seven-judge bench repeatedly sparred on various technical issues related to the President’s immunity and Gilani’s actions.
Ahsan maintained that the President had complete immunity from prosecution in Pakistan and abroad and the government could not ask foreign authorities to act against him.
The bench said the government should have acted on the apex court’s order to write to Swiss authorities to revive cases against Zardari and then invoked the defence of presidential immunity. (PTI)