Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan on Wednesday said President Asif Zardari enjoyed immunity under Article 248, therefore there was no need to write a letter to the Swiss authorities regarding the opening of cases against the president. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) top legal brain who is set to defend Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in a contempt of court hearing today (Thursday) however told Geo News that he did not agree with the PM’s stance on the replies filed by the army chief and ISI director general in the memo case.
Talking to reporters at the Islamabad High Court earlier in the day, Aitzaz said the court had a responsibility not to insist on writing a letter that would eventually be dismissed in Switzerland. “The grounds on which the Swiss authorities will reject the letter will be that the president has immunity in Switzerland too,” he said. He said that President Zardari enjoyed immunity in
Switzerland under the Vienna Convention until he was holding the seat of the president, “so it will be useless to right any letter to the Swiss authorities”. To a question, Aitzaz said it was not for him to decide whether the case would be over if the letter was written. Asked what the next step would be if the prime minister was declared ineligible by the SC, Aitzaz said the SC would send its decision to the National Assembly speaker who will then forward it to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “The ECP will then make a final decision of whether the prime minister is guilty or not….” The SC on January 16 issued a show cause notice to the prime minister on the charges of contempt of court for not taking any action on the implementation of the apex court’s verdict on NRO.
“If the judges ask me about my previous statements regarding immunity to former president Pervez Musharraf, I will try to convince them that Musharraf had no immunity because a civil suit had been filed against him… President Zardari, on the other hand, faces criminal cases in which he enjoys complete immunity until he’s holding the President’s Office”. To a query, he said a review petition regarding the NRO cases would not be filed, as “we do not want to create any rift among the government institutions.
Zardari enjoys immunity: Aitzaz
