Supreme Court issues show-cause notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 11:08:02 by Faisal Farooq
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf over his failure to implement its directive of writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
The apex court in its short-order, which has already dismissed prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani over the issue, asked the premier to appear personally before the court on August 27.
A five-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa dictated short order in the in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case. It said the show-cause notice was issued to PM Ashraf under Article 204 of the Constitution.
The short-ruling said that the premier should comply with the court’s verdict and dispatch a letter to Swiss authorities.
It further said that PM Ashraf had been informed that failure to implement court orders would lead to initiation of proceedings. It was unfortunate that the prime minister had failed to implement the court’s directives; it said adding that the government had also failed to submit a report in this regard.
The order added that on July 25 the attorney general had requested for time until Aug 8, adding that, during the previous hearing of the case, the court was not provided with proper assistance.
The court stated that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani deliberately violated the court’s orders and did not write a letter, which is why he was disqualified after conducting a trial.
Attorney General Irfan Qadir sought more time from the court, requesting that the hearing be adjourned till the first week of September. In his view, the case was of sensitive nature and it will take time for settlement.
The court, however, rejected his request saying that he had already been given enough time in the case.
The bench maintained that the attorney general didn’t bring stance of the government on July 12, explaining if the prime minister will be writing a Swiss letter or not. Upon which, the attorney general said that he has been trying to fill the gap between institutions and that if given more time he will be able to do that.
Earlier on June 27, the bench had given the new prime minister two weeks to indicate whether he would ask Swiss authorities to reopen a corruption case against President Zardari.
The court had on June 19 dismissed Yousaf Raza Gilani as prime minister after convicting him of contempt in April for refusing to reopen the multi-million-dollar case against the president.
Tags: Attorney General Irfan Qadir, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, NRO, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, show-cause notice, Supreme Court, Swiss authorities, yousaf raza gilani
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=30500
Posted by Faisal Farooq
on Aug 8 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan.
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.
The big picture is that ever since the judiciary became independent in Pakistan, all of its judgments and postures have been pro right-wing. It is curious to see a long trail of such judgments with hardly any note of dissent on the bench. There is not a liberal peep in theSupreme Court. Even the judges’ observations have a palpable right-wing bias. In the presence of a supreme Constitution, they invoke religious books. They release the terrorists but pursue the liberals. Judgments against Gilani and Haqqanii fall into the same broad pattern. Not sure what to make of these verdicts. At best, it is selective justice, at worst, justice with a retrogressive agenda.