Supreme Court warns Pak prime minister

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari and file a compliance report of this direction by July 25. A five-member bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa warned that if the prime minister failed to obey the direction about writing the letter, the bench would proceed against him under the Constitution. The judges are hearing the case of implementation of the court judgment against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in which the government was ordered to write to Switzerland to revive the corruption cases against Zardari. Ashraf’s predecessor Yusuf Raza Gilani was convicted for committing contempt of court for not following this direction and was disqualified as prime minister on June 19. Ashraf did not on Thursday submit his reply on the issue, which was given a few days back. Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the bench that the federal cabinet had on Wednesday decided to refer to the law ministry the issue of writing to the Swiss authorities. He said the cabinet will take a decision once the law ministry sends its opinion. Khosa asked, “You mean first the law ministry will give its suggestion then the cabinet will decide.” Qadir said that since the law minister and secretary were new, the cabinet would reflect upon the matter and give a final decision. He said that he had to leave the country for vacation and asked that the case be heard after summer holidays. Qadir said the order issued by the bench in its last hearing was delivered to the prime minister. It was also forwarded to the federal law ministry as well. Separately during the day in Lahore, at least nine policemen and prison personnel were shot dead by gunmen believed to be from Taliban. From: The Gulf today