ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Thursday ordered indictment of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in contempt proceedings, his defence lawyer said.
Gilani, who appeared in the apex court last month, will now face indictment on February 13.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, who defends the Prime Minister in the Supreme Court, said that he would advise his client to appeal a review against the court’s order.
The court had initiated the hearing over Mr Gilani’s refusal to ask Swiss officials to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Ahsan told reporters that he has informed the Prime Minister about the court’s order.
There was no reaction from the PM office and officials said that the Prime Minister was presiding over a ministerial meeting when the court issued the order.
Legal experts say that if found guilty of contempt he could be banned from holding public office.
Prime Minister Gilani appeared in the Supreme Court on January 19 and in his statement he defended his decision not to reopen graft cases against the President as he ‘enjoys’ immunity and that no court proceedings can be initiated against the sitting President.
Mr Gilani and his ruling Pakistan People Party (PPP) have so far refused to request the Swiss authorities to reopen the corruption case against President Zardari, as the Supreme Court has been demanding for two years.
All corruption cases against the president and many politicians and government officers had been dropped after the PPP struck a deal with the former President Pervez Musharraf.
The apex court has declared that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), the graft amnesty issued by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007, was unconstitutional and illegal.
The Supreme Court has been mounting pressure on the PPP-led government to reopen the cases against the president in Switzerland since it cancelled a graft amnesty that benefited President Zardari and nearly 8,000 others in December 2009. Online
