No appeal – a political rather than a legal decision. The leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday finally decided that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would not file an appeal against the decision of the seven-judge bench in the contempt of the court case as approaching the court in a “hostile environment” the party would lose the ground it gained in the trial court’s short order and the detailed judgment.
A source, who attended the meeting that decided not to file the appeal, told Pakistan Today that the “environment was too hostile” as, what the PPP considered, the prime minister had neither served a jail sentence nor was he disqualified. Under the law, an appeal is allowed against the decision of a court within 30 days. Saturday (yesterday) was the last day to file the appeal. “The argument in the PPP was that the prime minister had come out of the situation without going to the jail or being disqualified in an environment that was hostile,” the source said, adding that the opinion in the party was that in case of filing the appeal “the benefit of doubt” would not be given to the PPP or the prime minister. The source, however, agreed that since the SC bench had punished the prime minister till “the rising of the court”, the prime minister’s conviction would stay because he had already served the sentence. “But this sentence does not disqualify him (from being a member of parliament),” he argued. “After our satisfaction that the contempt committed by him (the prime minister) is substantially detrimental to the administration of justice and tends to bring this court and judiciary of this country into ridicule. The respondent/convict remained in the custody of the court till his release upon rising of the court for the day,” the judges had said in the short order. Explaining as to why the decision of not filing the appeal was taken while it had already been prepared, he said the fear in the PPP was that if it filed the appeal, the appellant bench might revise its decision “at least to disqualify the prime minister” and nullify the decision of the National Assembly speaker.
WONT APPEAL
