Rental power plants: Supreme Court to announce detailed judgement today

A three-member bench led by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will announce its judgement reserved by it in Rental Power Plants (RPPs) corruption case on Friday (today). Minister to write a letter to the Swiss authorities "regardless of the advice of the secretaries as he being the head of the government and the chief executive of the country has to make the final decision about writing to the Swiss authorities."
At the outset of hearing, Justice Mulk said the PM''s defence that he had acted on the advice of the secretaries was no longer valid as on March 8, 2012 they had passed a specific order to the Prime Minister regarding the matter. At a former time, the Premier was also directed that in compliance of NRO judgement he was required to write letter to the Swiss authorities. When no progress was made then the court was forced to issue a contempt of court notice to the PM.
Appearing on behalf of the federation, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq informed the bench that the PM had submitted a report in this regard. Justice Khosa said a reply by PM asked for postponement of the implementation proceeding while they had ordered the compliance of December 16, 2009 order. The PM on March 21, through attorney general, instead of submitting a report regarding the implementation of order through his secretary, wrote an application to the court wherein he refused to write a letter to the Swiss authorities and conveyed to the apex court to take up the matter after a final decision on contempt of court proceedings.
Justice Mulk said that over two-year old its verdict implemented had to be implemented in its entirety. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan remarked that the court on March 8 had given a clear direction to the PM that instead of seeing here and there he must write a letter to the Swiss authorities and if he didn''t implement the order then he would expose himself to another contempt. Justice Khosa asked the AGP: "Whether the authority of the Prime Minister is above the apex court?"
Justice Gulzar Saeed said if the PM did not comply with the order, his refusal would aggravate the situation. Earlier, Shaiq Usmani, counsel for the NAB chairman, informed the court that he would submit a report about Adnan Khwaja by April 10. The bench adjourned the hearing till April 16.