Gilani adamant on his decision of not writing a letter to Swiss authorities

Gilani adamant on his decision of not writing a letter to Swiss authorities

The Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday reiterated that he would not write a letter to the Swiss authorities insisting he would prefer to be imprisoned for contempt of court rather than inviting a death penalty for violation of
Article 6 of country’s constitution.

Addressing a gathering of students at the  Islamia University Bahawalpur, the Pakistan Prime Minister opined that he will not write a letter to the Swiss authorities, to reopen the corruption cases against the incumbent Pakistan president Asif  Ali Zardari,
according to the rules of business and Constitution.

“If I write a letter it will be a violation of the constitution, which is treason and which carries the death sentence,” Gilani told PhD students in Bhawalpur, with a few in the audience shouting “do not write, do not write”.

“If I don’t write, I will be convicted for contempt, the punishment for which is six months’ imprisonment. It’s better to face six months’ imprisonment than face the death sentence,” he added further.

Gilani, who was last month served a contempt notice by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the NRO implementation case, has been given a dead line of March 21 by the apex court to write a letter to the Swiss authority to reopen graft cases against Zardari .

Zardari and his late wife, former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss accounts to launder about 12 million US dollar in alleged bribes paid by companies seeking customs inspection contracts in the 1990s.

Gilani also took a dig at the political parties talking about the formation of Bahawalpur province, parallel to Seraikistan.

“If they talk so much for the creation of Bahawalpur and Seraiki province, I ask, they should try moving a resolution in the Punjab Assembly. They will not let anything like this happen,” said the PM. “We don’t want administrative rights. We want our own
provincial assembly,” he added further.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=15946

Posted by Asma Rafique on Mar 15 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry