Appeal rejected

Aftermath of the court’s decision

The eight member Supreme Court bench has rejected the appeal by the prime minister against the decision of a smaller bench which had ordered Gilani to present himself on February 13 to face contempt charges. The Supreme Court judges may now repeat the maxim fiat justitia ruat caelum, which translated into English means “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

Zardari maintains that the unwillingness to write the letter to the Swiss authorities is a matter of principle. Any attempt to reopen the Swiss cases, he maintains, amounts to the trial of Benazir’s grave, whatever that may mean, which no PPP government can allow. So as far as PM Gilani or for that matter any PPP Prime Minister is concerned writing the letter is therefore ruled out.

The legal battle will not end in a week or a month. It can continue till the next elections. Gilani will now have to appear before the SC bench in order to be charge-sheeted. In case he maintains he is not guilty of contempt, he will have to put up a defence. If he is able to convince the judges of his innocence, the charges can be withdrawn. In case he is sentenced, he can appeal against the verdict.

There is little hope of the letter being sent by Gilani. The Court can then send him to jail for a maximum six months, according to former CJ Saeed-uz-Zaman Farooqi. But Gilani will continue to remain the Prime Minister, maintains Aitzaz, as he would be a contemner in his personal capacity but not as PM.

There is little likelihood of Gilani convincing the judges that he has not committed contempt. The best possible lawyer he could get to defend him has exhausted his legal acumen without being able to persuade the two benches of the SC of Gilani’s respect for the court. The argument that he was cautioned against writing the required letter by competent legal advisors has been turned down by both the benches who insist that the order passed by the full SC was binding while the advice was not. The argument that the Prime Minister set the judges free was declared as another contempt of court and three related paragraphs had to be deleted from the petition.

The litigation would be lengthy as the dispute is likely to land in various forms in the court again and again. In case the Supreme Court turns down the plea that PM Gilani could continue to act as prime minister from jail, the PPP would nominate another leader to the post. If the PPP manages to retain the loyalty of its coalition partners, which presumably it can, there will be a new PPP prime minister. He too is likely to refuse to write the letter and face Prime Minister Gilani’s fate. The confrontation may continue till the next elections take place.

What the confrontation is likely to do is to prolong and deepen the economic crisis in the country. It would promote a profound and highly dangerous feeling of uncertainty which overtakes the business and trading community immediately. Political uncertainty scares away potential investors and reduces the confidence of the business and trading community.

Last week, shares at KSE ended flat on Thursday as early gains were eroded after the Supreme Court set a contempt hearing for the prime minister, renewing political tensions between the civil government and the judiciary.

Despite corruption and mismanagement, the PPP-led government was stable on account of the alliances it had built. It had near two-thirds majority in the parliament and could speak with confidence at home and during talks with other countries. With the fate of the government uncertain, it would be difficult for it to take any firm decisions. When the next administration takes over, it will have to prove that it is stable in order to be able to take important decisions act effectively.

Pakistan is trying hard to be re-enter the loop in the ongoing talks about the future of Afghanistan after it isolated itself by boycotting the Bonn conference and opted out of the trilateral talks with United States and Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on Salala outposts.

Khar visited Kabul early this month and Gilani was in Qatar early this week. An attempt is afoot by the parliament to formulate for the first time the country’s policy regarding the US.A parliamentary committee is busy preparing the guideline which will have to be taken to Parliament for finalisation.

This will require hectic talks and negotiations between the government and opposition leaders and non-elected stakeholders that include the foreign office, ministry of finance and the military establishment. Would the PPP leadership revise its policy towards writing the letter? Would the SC find a way out of the crisis in days to come? The conflict between the judiciary and the executive is the last thing anyone wants at this juncture.

The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.