Prime Minister Gilani’s future not quite gloomy: Experts

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, flanked by his democratic credentials in the form of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Asfandyar Wali Khan, returned to the Supreme Court so that charges of contempt of court could be framed against him.

However, he pleaded not guilty after the charges had been framed against him by a seven-judge bench of the apex court in the contempt case. Following his departure, the legal experts started telling what the future may hold for the premier.

Although the legal experts felt that the case would be heard quickly, they were of the opinion that Gilani may not be as gloomy as had been predicted by many analysts. One legal expert, indeed, was of the opinion that the indictment was not as harsh as could have been expected.

Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, who also served as attorney general, stated that the proceedings against Yousaf Raza Gilani could be discharged as they were in 1998 against then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He observed, “We are not a common law country and we have a proper constitution in place and everything will be done in accordance with the rules of business.”

Advocate Chaudhry Faisal Hussain while speaking to a local daily stated that the premier could not be disqualified under these charges. He stated, “Going through the language of the charge framed against the prime minister, I believe the prime minister cannot be disqualified.”

He further stated, “Prime facie, it appears as if the court has charged the prime minister with civil contempt instead of judicial or criminal contempt. This means that provisions of Article 63(1 g or h) of the Constitution do not apply to this particular case.”

Article 63(1 g) deals with the eligibility of candidates to stand for elections and be members of parliament; and those who are guilty of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary or compromising the integrity or independence of the judiciary are deemed disqualified.

Indeed, the reason political pundits had been predicting that Gilani would be disqualified was because of the court’s Dec 2011 order in which it had given six options (to deal with the refusal by the government to write a letter to the Swiss authorities) and said that if convicted of contempt, there was a possibility of disqualification.

Conversely, the bench did not refer to this article, Hussain added.

However, many were not agree with these logics. Senior Advocate Salman Akram said the incumbent was continuously doing contempt of court by declining to write a letter to Swiss authorities.

He believed the Supreme Court will most likely come up with an early decision if the government did not change its behavior. Senior Advocate Babar Sattar was of the opinion that the strategy of prime minister is to extend the contempt case.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 14 2012. Filed under National, 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.