PAKISTAN'S Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani
stared down the threat of being sent to jail by the Supreme Court yesterday, telling the bench he could not accede to its demand that he pursue a money-laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari, because presidents enjoy immunity while in office. After a brief hearing yesterday the case was adjourned until February 1, granting the government at least a fortnight's reprieve from potential collapse, as it faces one of the biggest crises of its shaky four-year tenure.
Mr Gilani waved to crowds before entering the heavily guarded Islamabad court complex about 10am, local time, to answer contempt charges over his failure to reopen thousands of corruption cases including against Mr Zardari. Inside the court he attempted to strike a conciliatory tone while insisting Mr Zardari, his political ally and Pakistan People's Party leader, could not be prosecuted while in office.Reading from a prepared statement, he told the seven-member bench: "I have come to show my respect to this court."I had no intention of disrespecting the judiciary. I was advised that the President has complete immunity in the matter.
"Presidents across the world have immunity. Pakistan's constitution gives immunity to the president. I have discussed this with my friends and experts, and they all agree."
Mr Zardari was one of hundreds of Pakistani bureaucrats facing corruption charges to benefit from a 2007 amnesty from prosecution, which was brokered to allow his wife Benazir Bhutto to return from exile and contest the first democratic elections since the 1999 military coup. She returned to Pakistan in 2007 but was assassinated while campaigning.
The couple was found guilty by a Swiss court in 2003 of laundering almost $US12 million in bribes paid by Swiss companies during Ms Bhutto's time as prime minister. The verdict was overturned on appeal and further investigations by Swiss authorities dropped in 2008 at the request of Pakistan's new civilian government.
But the Supreme Court overturned the amnesty in 2009 and has been pushing ever since for the Prime Minister to request Swiss authorities reopen the case.
Should the court find him guilty of contempt for failing to do so, Mr Gilani could be stripped of office and face a maximum five years in prison, leaving the government little option but to call early elections.
Mr Gilani is the second sitting prime minister in Pakistan's 64-year history to face contempt charges. In 1997 Nawaz Sharif, now leader of the main opposition party PML (N), was called to answer similar charges over statements made in parliament.
Mr Sharif apologised to the bench but later a mob of PML (N) supporters stormed the court, prompting a constitutional crisis.
Mr Gilani's administration is also under pressure from a second judicial commission investigating an anonymous memo seeking US help to avert a possible military coup in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden in May last year.
The memo has brought the government and the army into conflict and prompted renewed speculation the country is headed for its fourth military coup. No elected Pakistani government has completed its five-year-term before being ousted by a military coup or forced to an early election.
Meanwhile former president Pervez Musharraf, who had planned to return from self-exile to Pakistan this month to contest the expected elections, is rethinking the timing of his comeback after
a warning he would be arrested.
"There are three registered cases against him," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told parliament on Wednesday. "He has been named in these cases, so ultimately he will be arrested."
Mohammad Amjad of Mr Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League said: "His friends and party officials want him to postpone it for some time."
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