News
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Letter to Swiss authoritiesSC loosens noose around govt’s neck
* Court asks AG to find out ‘middle ground’ to end govt-judiciary ‘standoff’
* Justice Khosa says ready to write in verdict that ‘as long as Mr Zardari is president he has immunity under international law’
* Court grants two more weeks to prime minister
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: Granting two more weeks to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for writing a letter to Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, the Supreme Court asked the attorney general of Pakistan to come up with a solution for ending this so-called standoff over the issue between two major institutions of the country – judiciary and government.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa asked the attorney general to find a way that vindicates the position of both the government and the Supreme Court.
A five-member bench, headed by Justice Khosa, told the attorney general that it appears none of the directions passed during the last hearing had been complied with. Attorney General Irfan Qadir said law has not been followed in this case. He said para 178 of the NRO judgement is not implementable. There are serious reservations over it as one prime minister had been sent home unconstitutionally for not implementing the court order. He said the July 12, 2012, order was not in consonance with the verdict passed by the 17-member bench in the NRO case. Justice Khosa said there is a solution to this issue and dispelled the impression that the Supreme Court wanted to derail the system.
“We trust that the gap between the stated positions of two institutions is not impossible to bridge and we wish him (AG) well in his endeavour to resolve the pending issue,” Justice Khosa said. He also stated that now the whole country would be looking towards the attorney general as he has assured the court of resolving the matter, and also asked him not to disappoint the nation.
Justice Asif Saeed said it was the stated position of the court that the letter should be written to the Swiss authorities. He said that they wanted to empower the political parties. The president enjoys immunity internationally and they have conveyed this during proceedings of the contempt case against former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani. He added that Zardari being the president of the country enjoys customary international immunity abroad.
Justice Khosa said if the government wanted, the court could write in its judgement that “as long as Mr Zardari is president of the country he has immunity under international law”. He said the nation should not be terrified and there was no danger to democracy. “We don’t want to derail any persons, government or any institution. But we would not compromise on the dignity of this court. Speculation should die down now as the economy is nose-diving and there is political instability in the country,” he said. The attorney general then requested that he needed some time to resolve the issue and assured that serious and genuine efforts would be made to resolve the so-called standoff between the two important and critical institutions of the country.
Earlier, the attorney arguing the case said the NAB couldn’t be subjected to the Supreme Court, as it is an independent body. No NAB officers could be issued direction by this court neither are they answerable to it.
Bitter words were exchanged between Justice Khosa and the AG when the latter said if a judge had discussed the issue with a private counsel then he could not sit in the bench. “I am not saying that I don’t respect you but you should recuse from the bench,” the AG said to Justice Khosa. Later, the hearing was adjourned until August 8.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk