Legal experts believe that following the rejection of his appeal by the eight-member Supreme Court bench in the contempt case, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is left with only one option: submitting himself to the mercy of the court and writing the letter to the Swiss authorities – a choice President Asif Ali Zardari and the prime minister have time and again rubbished saying they would not comply with the court orders, come what may.
Legal expert Babar Sattar told Pakistan Today that Gilani might apologise and rectify his previous mistake by writing the letter. Asked whether the prime minister could take any legal plea to avoid his conviction, Sattar said there was no such option left to him now.
“If he still does not submit to the court, his conviction is now written on the wall. But if convicted under contempt charges, Gilani may file an intra-court appeal. Even after the appeal, he has another option to file a review petition,” he added. Asked if there were any lacunae in the appeal submitted by Aitzaz Ahsen, Gilani’s counsel, Sattar said the appeal was detailed and had covered all options.
He said Ahsen did not take the plea of immunity to the president under Article 248, which was a double-edged sword. “They knew that this option may backfire because if the court interpreted the Article 248 holding that there was no immunity to the president, the cases against the president in Pakistan would have also been opened aside from the Swiss cases,” he added.
He said even if the prime minister filed a review petition, the same grounds would be adopted that were adopted in the appeal. “I think the 17-member bench order on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was very clear and no plea can be taken against it,” he said, adding that the prime minister’s case was undependable and even the government knew that well.
“Actually, neither the seven-member bench nor the eight-member bench could overrule the ruling given by the 17-member bench,” he said and added that the government’s strategy was just to drag on the court’s verdict to buy more and more time. He said the government had not appointed a career bureaucrat as law secretary as bureaucrats did not defy the court. “The government knows that even if the law secretary or the prime minister has to be sacrificed, it would not hesitate. It would serve their purpose politically as well,” he added.
Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed said the prime minister would now have to appear in court on February 13 and the court would indict him. He said if the prime minister failed to appear in the court, he might face horrendous consequences. “He might be declared an absconder,” he said.
“If Gilani is convicted in the contempt case, he would be disqualified under Article 63(1)(g) of the constitution immediately as a member of the National Assembly,” he said, adding that there would be no need for the National Assembly speaker to send a reference to the chief election commissioner. Rather, he added, the court order would be enough for the disqualification of the prime minister.
Gilani left with one option: apologise and write the letter
