April 4: With the deadline set by the Supreme Court ending on Monday, the ruling PPP has reiterated that the Pakistan government has no intention of asking Switzerland to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. This sets the stage for a possible showdown with the judiciary.
The Pakistan People’s Party also reposed “complete confidence” in Mr Zardari’s leadership and said it was not going to write to any foreign government as international practice and conventions did not permit such a move.
These comments assume significance in the wake of the Supreme Court directing the government to send a letter signed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani by April 5 to the authorities in Switzerland asking them to reopen corruption cases against Mr Zardari.
If the government does not dispatch the letter to the Swiss authorities by Monday, it could lead to a showdown between the judiciary and the government. The ruling party and the higher judiciary led by Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhary have been at loggerheads ever since the Supreme Court struck down the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance last year. Since then, the court has been asking the government to take steps to reopen cases against Mr Zardari in Switzerland.
The PPP’s central executive committee, during a meeting late on Saturday night at Naudero in Sindh province, reposed complete confidence in Mr Zardari’s leadership and resolved that the party would resist the trial of its leaders, including former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s mother Nusrat, wife of the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Even before the meeting of the central executive committee chaired by Mr Zardari began, PPP spokesperson Fauzia Wahab told reporters in Sukkur that the government had no intention of making a request to Switzerland to reopen cases against Mr Zardari, saying that the President enjoyed “clear immunity” under international law and the Pakistan Constitution.
The party’s top leadership met on the eve of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s death anniversary, and Ms Wahab said there was “strong resentment” among party leaders at the central executive committee meeting over the issue of the Swiss cases.
“There is talk of the trial of Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, and everyone has recorded their objection to it. They have questioned why so much attention is being devoted to the Swiss cases because these cases were basically against Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.” Benazir Bhutto was the “principal accused and President Asif Ali Zardari was the co-accused” in most of these cases, Ms Wahab said.
“The Swiss cases were ended on merit as they had no basis. They went on for 10 years and no government could prove the charges,” she said.
Mr Zardari and his late wife were found guilty in absentia by a Geneva court in 2003 of laundering millions of dollars. They were given six-month sentences and fined, but both punishments were suspended when they appealed. The Swiss authorities abandoned the cases against them in 2008 after the Pakistani authorities asked them to do so.
Mr Zardari, meanwhile, said on Sunday that the draft constitutional reforms package tabled in Parliament (under which he loses his sweeping powers) will ensure that “no dictator can trample the Constitution” again. He was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a health facility at Garhi Khuda Baksh in Sindh province.
His comments come a day before he addresses a joint session of the Senate and the National Assembly on Monday, which will debate the constitutional package, popularly referred to as the 18th Amendment, from Tuesday. — PTI
Rezaul H. Laskar
Islamabad