The ruling coalition leaders are going to attend an exclusive brainstorming meeting at the Presidency today (Sunday) to fine-tune the government’s strategy to deal with the consequences of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s court hearing on Monday.
Background interactions with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders revealed that the party’s core committee meeting could not agree on a unanimous strategy and the meeting had authorized President Zardari to devise a strategy in consultation with leaders of the allied parties. During the meeting, Nazar Mohammad Gondal had suggested that there was no need for the PM to appear in court and his counsel may represent him on Monday. He said there was no legal bar on the PM to appear before the court on the first hearing.
But Zardari is keeping his cards close to his chest and with him seeking proposals from other party leaders, the president might just surprise the court as well as the media on Monday.
The apex court had disqualified former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on June 19 after convicting him of contempt in the NRO implementation case, while his successor, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has also been summoned by the top court on August 27 under a show-cause notice served on him.
Prime Minister Ashraf held a round of meetings with his legal aides on Saturday and also met Law Minister Farooq Naik and Attorney General Irfan Qadir separately.
Naik called on the prime minister to discuss in detail his hearing in the apex court. However, an official handout stated that both leaders discussed legislative business in parliament, matters pertaining to the Ministry of Law as well as other legal issues.
The prime minister expressed confidence that the Ministry of Law would continue to dispose of all issues requiring their legal opinion so that the working of the government continued smoothly.
According to Geo News, President Zardari told Prime Minister Ashraf during the meeting to face the apex court out of respect just as former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani had done.
But former PM Gilani was of the view that the PPP should change the strategy this time around.
Gilani begged to differ with the president regarding Ashraf’s appearance before the court, the channel quoted its sources as saying.
“The prime minister should not head to court this time, the party leadership should give second thoughts to it, otherwise they would have another Gilani,” the former PM told the meeting.
Several senior ministers put their weight behind Gilani’s suggestion, however, Zardari said he was aware of the possible outcome, but prime minister’s avoidance of court would leave a bad impression.
He added that the ultimate beneficiary of the ordeal would be the government.
