A day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court for the Prime Minister to write to the Swiss authorities asking them to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the government on Tuesday sought a review of the court order.
The Court turned down the request for a review saying such a petition should have been filed earlier as per rules. The government also informed the Court that Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf cannot write a letter to the Swiss authorities. The premise taken for refusing to write the letter remains the same: The President enjoys immunity while in office.
Soon after he took office on June 26, the Court had asked Mr. Ashraf whether he intended to write the letter. Repeated refusal to write the letter by his predecessor Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had resulted in the Court initiating contempt of court proceedings against him in January as a result of which his government was sent packing mid-June.
Earlier this month, the Court gave Mr. Ashraf time till July 25 to comply with its order after the government informed it that the federal Cabinet had referred the matter to the Law Ministry. Taking a dim view of the response, the Court said if the Premier failed to comply by July 25, then “this Court may initiate any appropriate action under the Constitution and the law”.
The seven-page order passed in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case on July 12 indicated the possibility of Mr. Ashraf meeting Mr. Gilani’s fate. The bench said: It goes without saying that all the directions issued by this Court during the implementation proceedings apply with equal force to the present incumbent of the office of the Prime Minister as he has merely stepped into the shoes of his predecessor in office and, thus, he too is bound to implement the relevant directions of this Court “regardless of any advice tendered earlier or in future”.
The Court has been insisting on the letter being written after it annulled the NRO — an amnesty law promulgated by the Musharraf regime — in 2009. On the issue of immunity — the plea taken by the government for not writing the letter — the Court is of the view that it can be invoked by the person concerned before a foreign court and was irrelevant to the contempt of court proceedings against the former Prime Minister.
