Politics

Contempt case: SC convicts PM Gilani

P G
Thursday, 26-April-2012

 

ISLAMANBAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that Prime Minister Gilani is guilty of contempt for refusing to obey an order to write to the authorities in Switzerland and ask them to re-open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, Geo News reported Thursday.
 
"For reasons to be recorded later, the prime minister is found guilty of contempt for willfully flouting the direction of the Supreme Court," said Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk.
 
Prime Minister Gilani stood before the SC to hear the verdict in contempt case for not implementing the apex court’s ruling on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
 
PM Gilani was punished till the rising of the court for violating Article 63 (1) (g) of the Constitution that states:
 
“A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he has been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction for propagating any opinion, or acting in any manner, prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, or the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan, or morality, or the maintenance of public order, or the integrity or independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary or the Armed Forces of Pakistan, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.”
 
A seven-member SC bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk on Tuesday reserved the judgment in the contempt case against PM Yousuf Raza Gilani and ruled that the verdict will be announced Thursday.
PM Gilani on Wednesday had vowed to attend the hearing in person and the full cabinet accompanied him to the courtroom today.
 
Security was tight as PM Gilani arrived at the SC building, with around 200 riot police armed with shields and batons stationed outside.
 
Interior Minister Rehman Malik urged the PPP activists not to come to the court and to remain calm whatever the outcome.
 
Zardari and former premier Benazir Bhutto were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder about $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts in the 1990s.
 
The Swiss shelved the cases against Zardari in 2008 when he became president and a prosecutor in Switzerland has said it will be impossible to re-open them as long as he remains head of state and so is immune from prosecution.
 
Gilani insists that Zardari has full immunity, but in December 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians.

 

    

Top Stories