Hearing the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case, a seven-member special bench of the Supreme Court decided on Thursday to announce its ruling on April 16 on the non-implementation of its orders by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani regarding writing a letter without getting any advice to Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
The bench of Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, observed that non-implementation of December 16, 2009 judgment on NRO by the prime minister was a sheer contempt of court. The court observed that each and every judgment passed by it should be implemented in letter and spirit. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan noted that when the court had ordered the prime minister to write a letter to the Swiss authorities without getting advice from any one, it was a final order.
He said if prime minister did not implement this order, another contempt of court proceedings could be initiated against him.
Appearing on notice, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq said he had been instructed by the government to request the court to defer hearing on its orders to the prime minister to write the letter without getting any advice, as contempt proceedings against the prime minister for not writing letter were already in progress, in which it was being examined whether the matter of writing letter was implement-able or not.
Justice Nasirul Mulk noted that the order for wring letter without getting any advice was a separate issue. He said continuation of contempt proceedings did not mean that the prime minister was not accountable for implementation of the NRO verdict as well as writing of letter to the Swiss authorities.
“Now, the prime minister and the law secretary would have to interpret the court orders,” Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked.
The court noted that the second order given to the prime minister, during the contempt proceedings, for writing letter was also not implemented, thus an appropriate decision would be given on it on April 16.
Earlier, on March 19, while disobeying the Supreme Court orders, the prime minister had refused to write letter to the Swiss authorities and had suggested that, being a matter of grave public concern, the issue should be sent to parliament.
On March 18, the court had ordered the prime minister to write a letter, without getting any advice and influence of the ongoing contempt proceedings against him, to the Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Zardari and submit compliance report along with his (Gilani) written statement on March 19 or personally appear on March 21 to get his statement recorded over the matter.
However, on March 21, Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel for the premier, objected on the seven-member special bench hearing the matter and sought its recusal. Now the court is scheduled to hear the case on April 12.
Supreme Court's order to write letter to Swiss authorities is clearly against the Constitution. In fact all judges issuing such orders are liable to be tried under Article 6.
The relentless vendetta goes on. Whither justice!
So does relentless corruption!
Zardari did not let anything go forward in cases of corruption against him in Pakistan for eleven years and in in Swiss courts also for so many years. Even now nothing seems to happen to him or his money – PMs may come and go. No body saying anything about the money itself as to whom it belongs – and it is still 'vendetta'.
How did u reach the that conclusion? There r 25 claimants to that money, and surely Zardari cud not hv influence in Swiss Courts, unlike Nawaz Govt who made efforts during their government to influence Swiss Courts thru their ambassador, who even admitted during his meeting with Swiss officer that cases are wrong. What I think is that cases now shud be initiated against those who made these cases, becoz it is their failure not to have succeeded in proving those cases in Swiss Courts.
Just like I suspected 🙂 The supreme court will drag this case untill closer to the election. They will feel the mood of the country then and give verdict accordingly. I bet if the supreme court thinks that ppp will win the next election, it will not render verdict against gillani but if they think that another party may come into power, they will rule against gillani. Supreme court is becoming so predictable.
Comments are closed.