PPP ‘won’t let anyone throw out second PM’

The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday night finalized its strategy with a commitment to not let anyone “throw out” its second elected prime minister out of Prime Minister’s House within a time-span of two months, Pakistan Today has learnt. “The PPP core committee meeting, which was co-chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at the Presidency, decided in principle to defend the prime minister through thick or thin as he was the elected chief executive of the country. However, a proposal was also discussed to find a middle way to write a letter to the Swiss authorities if the court also attaches a note about the international immunity enjoyed by the president,” a source said requesting anonymity. The source however added that majority view of the party leaders was that the government should not discuss any option about writing the letter as the matter was a closed transaction. However, some saner voices supported the idea of finding a solution to the issue which was haunting the PPP-led government since 2009 and was also affecting the performance of the government,” the source added. The source said that the final strategy would be evolved after a meeting likely to be held with the leaders of the allied parties, as the core committee authorized the president to take a final decision in this regard. Earlier in the day, Attorney General for Pakistan Irfan Qadir said that under Article 248 (1) of the Constitution, the prime minister is not answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and official functioning of his office. The attorney general said this while talking to reporters in his office in the Supreme Court. Responding to a question about the appearance of the prime minister before the apex court on the forthcoming hearing of the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) decision implementation case fixed for August 27, the attorney general said, “I don’t know about this and this will be the decision of the prime minister purely.” To another question asking what he was expecting from the court if the prime minister did not appear before the court on August 27, he said, “This question has no sense as these are hypothetical questions and I don’t comment on such questions relying on ifs and buts.” It may be mentioned here that a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa will hear the NRO implementation case on August 27 and the prime minister had already been issued notice by the bench to appear before the court in person on the said date. Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Athar Saeed are members of the bench.