Prime Minister Gilani’s options in contempt of court charges

As the extraordinary soap opera in politics continues, the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) saga is back with a bang.

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has been summoned once again to the Supreme Court on February 13 to face charges of contempt for not implementing the court’s rulings. The uncertainty and shakiness have become the political fashions but the latest crisis is perhaps the greatest threat.

One simply solution is that the incumbent simply writes a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen the cases against President Asif Ali Zardari that had closed under the cover of NRO. In case the government is ready to do so, the issue would likely disappear and it can concentrate on its agenda of holding Senate elections as per schedule.

Furthermore, it will also get to the budget in June and then contemplating when to contest general elections.

The common-sense thing for the PPP-led government to do would be to oblige the court when Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel of the premier, is claiming that writing a letter to Swiss authorities would not significantly impact Asif Ali Zardari’s presidential status.

However, it does not seem as simpler as we are looking. The key question is that whether the government, which has long preferred to respond politically to its legal agonies, will now go for the common-sense thing or not. It has only limited options if it wants to contest the case on legal grounds.

Apart from an intra-court appeal, the counsel of the PM will hardly find a loophole for his client to wriggle out through. There will be little space by way of argument that can be deployed to avert or even postpone the gravel from the executive slot once the contempt of court proceedings start.

It is quite impossible and illogical thinking that any bench of the apex court will declare the NRO judgment faulty, as a 17-judge bench had already declared that the government must dispatch a letter to Swiss authorities.

After a couple of years’ patience to see that the NRO judgment is not implemented in totality has given ways to annoyance. The apex court, which is perceived to be in a careful urgency, is not ready to help in dodging the political and democratic stability.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 3 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.