Letter to Swiss officials not possible now; says Aitzaz Ahsan

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Counsel for Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, reiterated his stance saying letter should not be written to the Swiss authorities until Asif Ali Zardari holds the office president. Aitzaz while arguing before a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court said his client relied on the summary of the Ministry of Law, which had advised him against writing letter to the Swiss authorities. The bench questioned why writing the letter was being taken as move against President Asif Ali Zardari, observing that it was concerned with civil rights. In counter-argument, Justice Sarmad Jalal questioned whether the prime minister was bound to uphold the summary or not? On this, the lawyer replied in negative, saying the premier thought that the letter to Swiss officials could not be written presently. Justice Nasirul Mulk on the occasion noted that the matter relating to presidential immunity was not at all raised at the stage of review while his colleague Justice Ejaz Afzal said that the premier had taken a firm stand against the court’s verdict. The counsel for the premier said that writing letter to Swiss authorities meant giving up on presidential immunity. Justice Gulzar on this occasion raised a question, “What makes you scary about writing letter”? On this, Aitzaz replied that he was afraid of disgracing the President of Pakistan. Justice Nasirul-Mulk said that nothing would happen due to immunity if the letter was written. He asked whether Swiss courts would open on writing letter. Aitzaz to this query answered that writing letter would demean the President. He continued that heads of states do not surrender their sovereignty in front of another country’s magistrate. The bench adjourned the hearing till Tuesday, April 24, 2012. During Thursday’s hearing, referring to the six options that the Supreme Court had rolled out before the premier on January 10, Ahsan had said that this was a perfect example of a “pre-trial” and these options were nothing but a conundrum and were like “nuclear bombs, daisy-cutters and carpet bombing”. Yousaf Raza Gilani was charged with contempt of court on February-13 over the government’s two-year refusal to write to authorities in Switzerland asking them to re-open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.