The Supreme Court on Monday issued Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani through a show cause notice, asking him to appear before it in person over the non-implementation of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict case on January 19. In his speech at the National Assembly later in the evening, Gilani said he would appear before the court.
----- Gilani ordered to face SC on 19th to explain his failure to ask Swiss to reopen cases
----- He says will appear before the court
----- The case hinges on the constitutional immunity of President Zardari, which Gilani is said to be trying to protect
The case hinges on the legal immunity of President, which Gilani is trying to protect. The SC had previously ordered the government to write to the Swiss authorities, asking them to reopen old corruption cases against Zardari for money laundering. The government insists, however, that the president has constitutional immunity from any criminal charges.
Gilani is accused of repeatedly refusing the orders to write to the Swiss government, raising the risk that he could be found in contempt of court. The SC said the government's lack of response to the orders meant "therefore we have no choice" but to start contempt proceedings against Gilani.
According to constitutional experts, members of parliament are not permitted to have any serious convictions, so a contempt of court judgement could automatically disqualify the prime minister. While hearing the non-implementation of NRO verdict case, a seven-member bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk observed the court was left with no other option but issue a show cause notice to Prime Minister why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him.
Attorney General for Pakistan told the bench and that he had communicated the court's orders to all concerned, but he received no reply. However, he sought more time in this regard. Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk while addressing the AGP said he was not supposed to communicate the orders of the court to the relevant authorities as his job was to argue the case on behalf of his client.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed, "It means those involved have nothing to say or they are satisfied with the orders passed by the court". Justice Khosa further said that the reason of misconception was that the SC had spelled out six options to government in the case. These options, according to him, are for apex court consideration to deal case in hand.
In his remarks he said, "Nobody has bothered to read the order in which we have not said that the Prime Minister is dishonest, the bench has chosen the words with due care saying prima facie Prime Minister is not honest to his oath". Shaiq Usmani, counsel for Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Fasih Bokhari, told the bench that his client wanted to extend an unconditional apology to the court.
"I offer my sincere apology on what happened during the last hearing of the case; it was the lack of knowledge pertaining to the proceedings of the court", Usmani submitted on behalf of Chairman NAB. Justice Khosa asked him to tender a written unconditional apology. Upon which Shaiq assured the bench that the Chairman NAB would definitely take an action against the people responsible for non-implementation of the court's ruling.
Justice Khosa further directed the Chairman NAB to submit all the record related to the inquiry against Adnan Khawaja former MD OGDCL, Riaz Sheikh former Additional DG FIA, and former AGP Malik Qayum before the bench. The court also sought the report on implementation of the NRO verdict. Justice Gulzar Ahmed inquired from Shaiq whether his client was withdrawing the reports that were filed earlier in the case.
While Prosecutor General NAB KK Agha prayed that his name was also in one of the options of the court order of January 10, Justice Khosa said that other option did not constitute any stigma on anybody. He also said that the court had said that the reports presented by the NAB were not satisfactory. When Chairman NAB has expressed regrets then there was no need of "your stance," the court told Agha.
Waseem Sajjad, the counsel for former AGP Malik Qayyum, said that there was no mandatory order of the SC in the NRO verdict against Malik Qayyum, but the NAB had issued his arrest warrants. According to him, Qayyum is very sick and he is in hospital. Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk said that nobody would arrest him.
Dr Abdul Basit, counsel for Ahmed Riaz Sheikh, contended that his client had already undergone the sentence in pursuance of the SC order, adding that the bench could seek details from the jail authorities. The bench asked all the counsel, who appeared before the bench, to wait for the next proceedings of the case for appropriate orders and adjourned the hearing till January 19.