A wordless, breathtaking day today

KHUDAYAR MOHLA

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will appear before a seven-member larger bench of the Supreme Court today (Monday), which will indict him for contempt of court over his refusal to write a letter to Swiss authorities seeking reopening the graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The 7-member bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed will resume the hearing of the contempt case. Earlier, the bench has summoned the prime minister on Feb 13 for formally charge-sheeting him after his counsel Aitzaz Ahsan failed to persuade the court that the premier's refusal to write a letter to Swiss authorities doesn't amount to contempt of the court.

On February 2, the Supreme Court decided to indict the prime minister saying, "After the preliminary hearing, we are satisfied that prima facie there is a case for further proceeding into the matter.

On Feb 10, an eight-member bench headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry dismissed the Intra Court Appeal (ICA) of the prime minister against the 7-member bench's decision to indict him.

Declaring that "no one is above the law", the Supreme Court during a marathon hearing on Thursday said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani should write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

It merits mention here that during pervious hearings of the case the Supreme Court has made it clear to Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for the premier, that if the prime minister agrees to write letter to Swiss authorities to reopen cases of alleged money laundering against President Zardari, the proceedings against his client would end otherwise there is no escape.