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Contempt Charge

Pak court rejects Gilani's appeal

Agencies
Pakistan's top court yesterday threw out a last-ditch appeal from embatded Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, ordering him to appear in court on Monday to be indicted for contempt.
If convicted, Gilani faces six months in jail and being disqualified from office in a case fanning political instability that expected to force elections within months in the country troubled by al-Qaeda and Taliban violence.
If Gilani is removed, it does not necessarily mean the government will fall as the ruling coalition has the numbers in parliament to elect a replacement.
But a protracted court battle could weaken the administration and damage the ruling Pakistan People's Party's chances in the next general election expected by 2013.
The Supreme Court is now insistent that Gilani appear for the framing of contempt charges over the government's two-year refusal to ask Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
"The appeal is dismissed," said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Zardari and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder about $12 million in alleged bribes paid by companies seeking customs inspection contracts in Pakistan in the 1990s.
Chaudhry had said the court would only drop the summons if Gilani obeyed its order of writing to the Swiss authorities, asking them to re-open the cases.
The judge yesterday wanted a clear answer on whether the prime minister would write the letter, telling his lawyer: "We are ready to give you 10 minutes to talk to the prime minister on the phone and let us know."
"I have no mandate to do that," replied Gilani's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, Ahsan confirmed that the prime minister would now appear in court on Monday.
Legal experts say that Gilani can only avoid being charged by lodging a successful appeal, apologising or promising to write to the Swiss.
But a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) later told IANS that the prime minister "will
never" write to Swiss authorities to reopen money laun-dering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari as long he is in the office.
The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008, when Zardari became head of state, and a prosecutor in Switzerland has said it will be impossible to re-open them as long as he remains head of state and is immune from prosecution.
The Pakistani court overturned in December 2009 a two-year political amnesty that had frozen the allegations against Zardari and other politicians.
However, Gilani insists that Zardari has full immunity.
He himself appeared before the Supreme Court on January 19, citing Zardari's immunity as explanation for his refusal to obey the court's order.
The president, so tainted by corruption allegations that his nickname is "Mr 10 Percent", has already spent 11 years in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
He was never convicted and his supporters say that the charges were politically motivated.