Graft cases: Disquiet in Pak govt on immunity to Zardari

The PPP is however firmly defending the decision to grant constitutional immunity to President Zardari.

The Pakistan Peoples Party-led government might be insisting that President Asif Ali Zardari is immune to criminal prosecution,but its political allies are apparently undecided about it.

The government is required to reopen graft cases in Swiss courts against President Zardari in pursuance of the apex court verdict on the defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Apparently,the PPP is reluctant to budge on its interpretation of constitutional immunity for President Zardari,much to the annoyance of an increasingly assertive judiciary,The Express Tribune reports.

On Monday,senior PPP leaders joined their heads to discuss,what Presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar called,ways and means to overcome the challenges faced by the party and its government.

The meeting said the party would stand behind the prime minister in adopting a stance (in the Supreme Court) that is correct,respectful and constitutional, Babar said in a statement without elaborating.

Insiders,however,say the Prime Minister will elaborate the actions taken by the government in compliance of the Supreme Court verdict,thus far.

He will highlight the steps taken by the government in strengthening democracy,including 18th Amendment,but reiterate that the president enjoys immunity, an insider privy to the meeting of the core committee jointly co-chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and President Zardari,said.

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This is their stance (that the president enjoys immunity) and the prime minister will try to corroborate it saying that they do not feel any necessity to get it interpreted from anywhere since for them this is an established fact, a PML-Q member who attended an earlier meeting of PPPs coalition partners said.

However,he said,the PPP could not plead its case properly,adding: I think,now the time is over for them. They could have contested their case successfully.

Aitzaz Ahsan to represent Gilani in SC

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan will represent Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the contempt of court notice against him over the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case on January 19. Gilani was served a show-cause notice for contempt of court on Monday.

According to The Dawn,Ahsan met the Prime Minister,who later approved the barrister to represent him in the apex court.

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Earlier on Monday,a seven-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk had issued the order against the premier once it was evident that the government had no response to the six options laid down at the last hearing on the implementation of the NRO judgment.

The prime minister has been directed to personally appear before the court on January 19 for his refusal to write a letter to Swiss authorities for reopening cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Earlier in the day,Gilani said the Supreme Court and the Army should protect democracy,and not derail the system.

Speaking in the National Assembly after the passage of a resolution in support of democracy on Monday,Gilani said: If there is no democracy then everybody will go together. Nobody will go in separate boxes.

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We do not want a certificate of patriotism from others, he added.

Gilani said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto had laid down their lives for democracy and it goes to the credit of this parliament that it restored the Constitution of 1973.

He said the Supreme Court had called him,and he would appear before it on January 19 to show his utmost respect for the institution.