A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday seeking Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s disqualification for attempting to subvert the constitution by defying the judiciary’s orders, despite knowing that it is one of the pillars of the state. Allah Bakhsh Gondal filed the petition, through his counsel AK Dogar, submitting that the PM had made deliberate defiance of the apex court and “repeated attempts to subvert the constitution by unconstitutional means”. The petitioner said that the PM had forfeited the sacred trust and ceased to hold office by automatic operation of provisions of articles 5, 6, and 92 (2) of the constitution by not implementing all decisions of the apex court from 2009 to present. Referring to SC orders on the NRO case, Swiss accounts case of President Asif Ali Zardari, the dual office case and matters pertaining to appointments on key posts, the petitioner said the federal government led by the PM had disobeyed SC orders openly. He said that the federal government started confrontation with the judiciary after the apex court handed down a land mark judgment on the NRO case in December 2009 and after 19 months, the verdict had not been implemented by the PM-led government. On March 24, 2010, the SC gave 24 hours time to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to write a letter to Swiss authorities but then attorney general Anwar Mansoor informed the court that the law minister was creating hurdles in this regard. The petitioner said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had not only ignored SC orders regarding appointment of the NAB chairman but appointed wrong people to facilitate itself. He said the LHC ordered President Zardari not to use the Presidency for political activities but the government ignored the order. He said the PPP, instead of respecting court orders, started protests against the judiciary and publicly mocked LHC orders. The petitioner said that Sindh Senior Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza crossed all limits in defying the judiciary. He said under the parliamentary system, it was responsibility of the prime minister to implement verdicts of the SC but he had failed to do the needful and ignored orders. The petitioner requested the court to declare that the prime minister defied orders of the apex court and subverted the constitution on which he should be disqualified.
