ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading the eight-member hearing Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s intra-court appeal on Thursday, remarked that the appeal itself was in contempt of the court.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, representing Prime Minister Gilani in his contempt of court case, appeared before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry nearly after five years.

During the hearing, Justice Saqib Nisar directed Ahsan to remove ‘objectionable’ paragraphs from his appeal.

The chief justice questioned Ahsan on how he could include paragraphs in his appeal which say that the contempt case cannot be initiated against a prime minister who helped in restoring the judges.

Ahsan, in reply, said that even if a contempt case was initiated against him, keeping in view his struggles for the restoration of the judges, he would have taken the same stance.

However, three objectionable points from the intra-court appeal were removed on the court’s insistence.

The eight-judge bench appeared intransigent that the government must respond to its request in December 2009 to re-open corruption cases.

President Asif Ali Zardari and his late wife, prime minister 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.

The chief justice insisted the prime minister should have taken the initiative in re-opening those cases. The court said it had shown patience in the two years and three months since it ordered that the matter be taken up with the Swiss.

Ahsan pointed out that the Swiss authorities had themselves closed the cases in 2008, when Zardari took office, on the grounds of immunity, and that there was no third party to claim the funds.

“The prime minister should not be the person to undermine any institution. This money will not come to our pockets. Actually it is the nation which wants this money,” the chief justice said.

The bench was formed on Wednesday after Ahsan filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against its order of filing charges against the prime minister.

None of the seven judges, who had summoned the prime minister on February 13 for the framing of charges, are part of the bench hearing appeal against their order.

MIRANSHAH: US missiles on Thursday killed al Qaeda’s chief in Pakistan, one of the Americans’ main targets and wanted for attacks that killed scores of people, officials said.

Badr Mansoor, who reputedly sent fighters to Afghanistan and ran a training camp in North Waziristan, was killed in a pre-dawn drone strike on a compound near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials and a member of his group told AFP.

A US drone attack had targeted a militant compound killed four insurgents in North Waziristan, early morning on Thursday, security officials had said.

Two missiles hit the compound located in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, a security official had said.

“A US drone fired two missiles at a compound used by militants in Miranshah and four militants have been killed.”

The incident and death toll were confirmed by intelligence sources.

“Taliban fighters had started hiding here in rented buildings and those killed are believed to be militants,” one official said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Officials said the death toll could rise because of damage to buildings next to the one targeted by the drone.

This strike followed a drone attack, earlier, on Wednesday on a compound in Tappi, 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Miranshah, which security officials said killed 10 insurgents.

Several militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, have a presence in Pakistan’s border tribal regions, taking advantage of a porous border with Afghanistan to conduct cross-border attacks, or plot violence elsewhere.

North Waziristan is also an important base for the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, an Afghan militant faction allied with the Taliban.

While the Haqqanis say they no longer need havens in North Waziristan and stay in Afghanistan, they are known to still maintain a presence in the Pakistani border region.

ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Essa, during the Memogate hearing in the Islamabad High Court on Thursday, said that if it was told earlier that Mansoor Ijaz will not be coming to Pakistan, then it would have not only saved time but also resolved the case.

The judicial commission probing the Memogate scandal resumed the hearing today.

Ijaz’s counsel Akram Sheikh said that he was appearing before the court “voluntarily” and that the court, according to Pakistani laws, does not hold the authority to summon Ijaz.

He said that if Ijaz comes to Pakistan, the Parliamentary Committee on National Security would also summon him, in reply to which Justice Essa said, “Now you are taking a U-turn.”

Justice Essa added that earlier, security was being made an issue and now the parliamentary committee.

Sheikh prayed to the court that the location for recording Ijaz’s statement be changed to Zurich or London from Dubai. Justice Essa questioned that what is the guarantee that if the court’s representatives go abroad, Ijaz will have his statement recorded.

Ijaz has been summoned by the parliamentary and judicial commissions investigating the case, and has twice refused to come to Pakistan despite assurances of proper security.

In the request, Sheikh had said that Ijaz has a security threat if he comes to Pakistan and there is also the danger that he might be arrested on false charges or evidence might be taken away from him.

WASHINGTON: In the packed Room 2200 of the Rayburn Office Building, members of the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations began hearing human rights activists and scholars detail human rights abuses in Balochistan.

The hearing chaired by Congressman (R) Dana Rohrabacher, who last week introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to award Dr. Shakil Afridi with US citizenship. In his opening remarks, Rep. Rohrabacher said that Balochistan is a turbulent land marred by human rights violations “by regimes that are against US values”.

Rep. Rohrabacher outlined the history of Pakistan’s creation, and highlighted Balochistan’s grievances vis a vis natural resources, said that the province’s wealth was being taken by dominant Punjabi elite.

Addressing the committee, scholar Christine Fair said that while she understood emotions ran high, targeted killings were also being carried out by the Baloch.

In his submitted testimony to the committee, Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director T. Kumar called on the US to “apply the Leahy Amendment without waivers to all Pakistani military units in Balochistan.”

Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director for Human Rights Watch, in his submitted remarks, said that cases documented by the HRW show that Pakistan’s security forces and its intelligence agencies were involved in the enforced disappearance of ethnic Baloch. The HRW representative asked the US government in his recommendations to “communicate directly to the agencies responsible for disappearances and other abuses including the army, ISI, IB, Frontier Corps, police and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to demand an end to abuses and facilitate criminal inquiries to hold perpetrators accountable.”

Hasan dubbed the military’s role in the province as brutal, and an occupying one. He clarified that the HRW took no position on the issue of the independence of Balochistan.  He argued that the US and UK had made enforced disappearances possible by allowing them during the war on terror, which has led to the military doing the same. Christine Fair added that Pakistan’s abuse of human rights have served the US’ interests.

In his testimony, analyst Ralph Peters called Pakistan a supporter of terrorism, and said that Pakistan had made the US complicit too by launching attacks against India such as the Mumbai attack.

The hearing, which lasted a little over an hour, came to an end as congressmen decided to go to the floor for a vote. In his closing remarks, Rep. Rohrabacher declared that the hearing was no stunt, and that they wanted to start a national dialogue on what US policy should be in that part of the world.

State Department distances itself from Balochistan hearing

When asked about the Congressional hearing on Balochistan, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that their view on Balochistan remains unchanged. “Congress holds hearings on many foreign affairs topics. These hearings don’t necessarily imply that the US Government endorses one view or another view. I’d underscore that the State Department is not participating or involved in this hearing today.”

The spokesperson referred to comments she had made recently on Balochistan on Twitter, “We emphasise that the United States engages with Pakistan on a whole range of issues, including ways to foster economic development and expand opportunity in Balochistan.”

When asked whether the US supports a demand for an independent Balochistan, Nuland said, “Our view on this has not changed, and you know where we’ve been on Balochistan. We encourage all the parties in Balochistan to work out their differences peacefully and through a valid political process.”

PARIS: The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion – a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Muammar Qaddafi from power, he said.

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting al Qaeda’s (and associated entities’) training camps and pipelines.”

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within al Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based al Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network’s difficulties.

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

“It’s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security.

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants – he was the al Qaeda brand.

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for al Qaeda,” he said.

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it’s likely that the number of volunteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don’t think it’s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest Pakistan, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has overwhelming support from American voters for his use of drone strikes against terror suspects and his planned troop drawdown in Afghanistan, a poll found Wednesday.

Obama, who signed off on the US special forces raid which killed Osama bin Laden last year, also enjoys a wide edge over his likely Republican election foe Mitt Romney on national security and foreign policy, the poll showed.

Eighty-three per cent of those asked in the Washington Post/ABC News survey said they backed Obama’s use of unmanned drone aircraft against suspected militants in the tribal belt of Pakistan. The programme has drawn the ire of the Pakistani public and some civil liberties groups who have termed the drone as illegal and its victims as being murdered extra judiciously.

The president publicly acknowledged the drone strikes for the first time in a Google+ and YouTube interview last month, and that such attacks had been authorised against targets in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Seventy-eight per cent of those asked approved of Obama’s plans to draw down troops in Afghanistan, despite fierce criticism of the president’s strategy from Republican presidential candidates, including Romney.

Voters were also asked whether they approved of the decision to keep the Guantanamo Bay war on terror detention facility in Cuba open and 70 per cent approved.

Obama had vowed to close the camp, which he said was a recruiting tool for terrorists, shortly after taking office in 2009, but due to congressional opposition and complications in dispersing inmates, has so far been unable to do so.

Respondents also trusted him more on international affairs by a 56 to 37 percent margin.

The survey contained the latest evidence that Obama’s conduct as US commander-in-chief has wiped out the traditional edge Republicans have had over Democrats in national security policy.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama received an update on the US engagement with the government of  Pakistan, according to a press release issued by the White House.

The update is “on a range of issues of mutual interest, including efforts to strengthen cooperation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border”, stated the release.

It also said that President Obama received updates on Afghanistan, including the Afghan security forces, reconciliation and preparations for the Nato Summit in Chicago.

The press release said that the US “will further define the ongoing transition to Afghan-lead security and Nato’s commitment to the future of Afghanistan as agreed to at the 2010 Nato Summit in Lisbon at the Nato Summit in Chicago to be held later this year”.

ISLAMABAD: In a possible easing of tensions, senior military officials from Pakistan, Nato and Afghanistan met for the first time in months on Wednesday in an effort to improve border coordination.

The trilateral meeting, held at the Border Coordination Center Torkham, was the first since last year’s Nato cross-border raid which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and sent the fragile alliance between Pakistan and the US to an all-time low.

But Wednesday’s meeting, attended by Pakistan Army’s Director General Military Operations Major General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed, was the clearest indication yet that tensions between Islamabad and Washington were easing.

Pakistan reacted sharply to the November 26 Nato attacks by shutting down key supply lines for the western forces stationed in Afghanistan and ordered a complete review of cooperation with the US.

Pakistan also refused to host US officials including President Barack Obama’s point-man for the region Marc Grossman, who intended to visit Islamabad last month to discuss the progress in peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.

However, in recent weeks the two sides appear closer towards ironing out their differences. One such indication was a rare briefing given by the US to Pakistan last week on its initial contacts with the Afghan Taliban.

Previously, the two countries kept their cards close to their chests on the Afghan endgame, reflecting a trust-deficit between the crucial allies.

A terse statement issued by the military’s media wing said that the meeting was part of a “tripartite engagement to discuss and improve various coordination measures on Pak-Afghan border.”

A military official told The Express Tribune that the Pakistani side emphasised the need for better coordination to avoid a repeat of last year’s airstrikes.

The official also acknowledged that the trilateral meeting would help pave the way for more engagements between Pakistan and the United States, in coming weeks.

Some sources indicate that the latest talks would be followed by another round of parleys at the level of Pakistan, Nato and Afghan military chiefs.

Interestingly, the tripartite meeting was held the same day the latest US drone strikes killed nine people in North Waziristan Agency.

The development is being seen as resumption of intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the United States.

An American diplomat has disclosed that despite tensions, the two countries have been “sharing intelligence and cooperating with each other.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court’s Justice Azeem Khan Afridi on Wednesday disposed of a former Secretary Defence Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Naeem Lodhi’s plea to temporarily restore him to his post by staying the implementation of his removal notification.

The court, however, directed authorities concerned to maintain the status quo and not appoint a new secretary until the final disposal of Lodhi’s petition against his sacking.

Lodhi was seeking interim relief from the court to restore him to the post. He claimed in the petition that he was removed because he had refused to sign government’s affidavit related to the Memogate issue to be submitted in the Supreme Court.

Appearing in person before the judge, he contended that he was appointed secretary in 2011 on a two-year contract basis.

He argued that he was removed from the post without any inquiry or show-cause notice. Lodhi said that as per law, one month’s salary should have been paid to him at the time of removal from the office.

Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, however, informed the court that Lodhi had been paid the one-month salary. He said Lodhi was removed from the post as per law because contractual employment can be terminated legally at any time without prior notice.

Justice Afridi, after hearing both the plaintiff and defendant, reserved the verdict which he announced late in the evening.

In the short order, the court ordered the authorities to maintain the status quo till the final disposal of the main petition.

The court, after admitting the writ petition for regular hearing, had issued notices to the president, prime minister, cabinet secretary, establishment secretary and the acting Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi to submit their replies. The date of the hearing of Lodhi’s petition is yet to be fixed.

Lodhi was removed by Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani on January 11 on charges of ‘gross misconduct’.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012. 

MOSCOW: Pakistan and Russia on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment and support to promote stability and peace in Afghanistan for ‘Afghan-led and Afghan-owned’ efforts for national reconciliation in the country.

During an official visit of Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Russia from February 7 to 9, at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the two sides expressed deep concerns about the threat of terrorism and drug-related crimes persisting in the region. Khar added that Pakistan had a clear policy to support any Afghan-driven peace initiative.

Khar, on behalf of President Zardari, invited the Russian president to attend the next quadrilateral summit meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Islamabad this year.

According to the foreign office, the two sides held in-depth discussions on a range of bilateral matters, as well as on important regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The two ministers reviewed the progress made on the understanding reached between the leadership of the two countries during President Asif Ali Zardari’s official visit to Moscow in May 2011 and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s meeting with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Heads of Government meeting in November last year.

Taking note of the considerable progress made, both countries agreed that a large potential for enhancing bilateral cooperation still existed, particularly in trade, investment, energy and agriculture.

They also expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the meeting of the Joint Working Group on Energy Cooperation held in Moscow last year. The two sides discussed several concrete proposals including oil exploration, hydropower production/distribution and coal-based power generation projects.

Pakistan welcomed Russia’s willingness to participate in trans-regional energy projects namely, TAPI and CASA-1000. Pakistan also welcomed Russian interest in Thar coal exploration.

The ministers noted with satisfaction that substantial progress has been made towards finalising the proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Expansion and Modernisation of Pakistan Steel Mills, and hoped that other formalities, including financing of the project, will be finalised soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012. 

Wednesday’s Senate proceedings witnessed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stage a walkout from the upper house in protest.

Senator Shahid Bugti raised the issue on a point of order and condemned the killings of Mir Bakhtiar Domki’s wife and daughter, who, he said, were deliberately gunned down when they were retuning home after attending his son Shahid Bugti’s wedding ceremony.

“In our Pakhtun and Baloch culture, even during battles, women and children were never targeted but this incident is indeed a target killing incident since they had no enmity with anyone,” said Bugti.

JI’s Senator Prof Khursheed Ahmad also strongly condemned the killings and termed it a “dreadful act” and pressed for immediate arrest of the murderers. He said: “Keeping in view the situation of Balochistan, time has come to work collectively to bring peace and stability there.”

Zahid Khan of ANP said that situation in Balochistan was getting out of control and far sighted policies should be formulated to placate the situation.

MQM’s Sherala Malik, PML-Q’s Naeem Hussain Chatta, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Abdul Nabi Bangash, Haji Adeel, SM Zafar, Sabir Baloch, Kalsoom Parveen, Seemi Sadiqi, Maulana Saleh Shah, Najma Hameed and Haroon Akhtar also joined the chorus and condemned the incident collectively.

Question Hour

Earlier during the question hour, Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told the upper house that Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has suffered financial losses of Rs1.8 billion due to the four-day protest by its pilots.

Through a written reply to a question, the defence minister said that 56,082 passengers were affected directly and 451 flights were cancelled.

At the start of the proceedings, Leader of the House Nayyer Hussain Bukhari laid the annual report of the National Economic Council for the financial year 2010-11 before the house.

‘Extra tax’ on urea

The government is generating millions of rupees by charging “extra tax” (cess) on urea commodities in Bajaur Agency, the upper house was informed.

“Over Rs17 million were collected on sugar and urea by imposing extra tax [cess] in Bajur Agency during the last ten years,” revealed Minister for States and Frontier Regions Engineer Shaukatullah.

Lawmakers belonging to both the ruling alliance and opposition demanded the government should waive off this extra levy for free movement of commodities in tribal areas to promote business.

Pakistan Railways

Federal Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said: “The financial crisis has pushed Pakistan Railways into a blind alley from where we can not improve its infrastructure.”

‘Mismanagement’ resulted in accumulation of deferred track maintenance in railways due to which the track infrastructure is generally not satisfactory, he said. Bilour was replying to  a query by JUI-F senator Talha Mahmood. “Our railway track is not in line with international fast track classifications,” Bilour said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.

The offer, which may also benefit Afghanistan, was made by Iran during a recent visit to Pakistan by its International Affairs Vice President Ali Saeedlou.

Iranian oil supply to the world market has declined by 20% following the embargo imposed by the US and EU. “Now Iran wants to provide oil to Pakistan that may be at a less rate compared to oil imports from Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait,” sources said, adding that Iran has expressed willingness to materialise the plan.

A senior official of the petroleum ministry said that the status of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline was discussed during a visit of an Iranian delegation. He confirmed that Iran had offered to supply oil on soft terms, adding that it was a long-term plan.

“We have not discussed a specific subject of the oil pipeline,” he said, adding, however, that different proposals were discussed to explore other areas of mutual cooperation in the energy sector.

Under the plan, an oil pipeline is to be laid right up to the Gwader Port, where a crude oil refinery would be set up. “Pakistan and Iran may enter into a joint venture to set up a refinery at Gwadar Port,” sources said.

They further maintained that Pakistan had also shared the plan with Afghanistan during Afghan Deputy Minister of Finance Mohammad Mustafa Mastoor’s visit to Islamabad on February 2.

The Afghan minister is reported to have remarked that it would be a good opportunity for Afghanistan to get an uninterrupted oil supply at cheaper rates.

Pakistan has been importing 45,000 barrels of Iranian crude per day on a three-month deferred payment but oil imports were stopped after the US sanctions making it impossible for countries to use the international financial system to pay for Iranian oil.

Furnace oil

According to industry sources, Iranian oil had more components of furnace oil. Pakistan’s furnace oil requirements have increased from three or four million tons in 2004-2005 to nine million tons in the current financial year. Refineries in Pakistan currently have a furnace oil production capacity of just three to 3.5 million tons per year.

Pakistan State Oil imports furnace oil to meet the power sector’s requirements.

Industry sources say that Pakistan may save 20 cents per barrel as it will no longer have to bear the costs of transporting Iranian oil.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.

The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have decided to form a committee to choose caretakers for supervising fresh parliamentary polls later this year. The hard-earned consensus was achieved after several rounds of talks over the past three days.

At the heart of the back-to-back meetings is the 20th constitutional amendment, aimed at validating all the by-elections which took place between April 2010 and July 2011, when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was not fully complete as per the requirement under the 18th Amendment.

The 18th constitutional amendment made it binding for the government to appoint a retired high court judge from each of the four provinces as ECP members – a condition that was met only in July 2011, casting doubt on the 28 MPs elected during this period.

Officials in the ruling and opposition parties told The Express Tribune they had cleared all the hurdles in the passage of the amendment and the bill might come to the Parliament this week.

“It is a done deal now… all seem to have got their wish. It is a win-win situation for everybody. We can now expect an announcement shortly,” said a top PPP leader who is privy to the talks.

According to officials in PML-N, the opposition party will support the amendment, which will also now carry a clause envisaging that there should be ‘consensus’ and not mere ‘consultation’ in establishing a caretaker setup for holding fresh elections.

The committee both sides agreed to form will, according to the plan, start deliberations on finalising the caretaker government immediately after elections for half of the Senate seats scheduled for March 2.

Insiders said the government had accepted an opposition demand of choosing a caretaker cabinet, but that President Asif Zardari would be empowered to select the interim prime minister out of three mutually-agreed names forwarded to him.

A provision in the 18th constitutional amendment gave the president power to choose the caretaker government with the consultation of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. Talks on Tuesday had already covered some significant ground when the government agreed to an opposition demand and promised it would not push to seek extensions for the incumbent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (Retd) Hamid Ali Mirza, when his term expires next month.

Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters that there was no more deadlock in the talks but added it was premature to claim a final breakthrough.

He said his party suggested that the procedure of formation of a caretaker government should also be extended to the provinces. However, he said that a final understanding would be reached in the meeting on Thursday (today). “It is going to be a make or break round on Thursday,” said Nisar. The government’s top negotiator, Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, however, said all the hurdles were removed and the amendment would be passed soon.

Sources said that Nisar called party leader Nawaz Sharif, who is hunting in the Cholistan desert with friends, about the developments on Wednesday night. Sharif reportedly told his senior party leaders on the phone that, if the PPP backtracked on its commitments on Thursday, negotiations should be stopped.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012. 

The Supreme Court formed an eight-member bench on Wednesday to hear Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s appeal against contempt charges. It was a prompt response to the prime minister filing his appeal against contempt charges earlier in the day.

The bench will be headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and will hear the plea on Thursday (today).

Gilani’s 200-page appeal pointed out 54 legal and constitutional points which argue that the prime minister did not defy the Constitution by not writing a letter to Swiss authorities. The appeal was packed with the same arguments made by the premier’s counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, during the earlier proceedings of the case.

Aitzaz stated that the main reason for not writing the letter to Swiss authorities was Gilani’s understanding, based on advice, that “Mr Asif Ali Zardari, as President of Pakistan, enjoys absolute ‘Head of State Immunity’ from criminal as well as civil actions in all foreign jurisdictions during the term of his office”.

The barrister said he based the appeal on precedents set by top courts in Australia, Britain, France, India and the United States. He also claimed that the prime minister enjoys functional immunity under Article 248 (1) of the Constitution.

Aitzaz repeatedly mentioned that the court did not give him ample time for completion of his arguments in the case. He also said that the court had made an error in passing this administrative order without giving the ‘reasons’ for its ‘prima facie satisfaction’ to continue the case against the prime minister.

The prime minister’s appeal also argued that courts are obliged to try all other means to avoid contempt proceedings.

On the other hand, it also said that the court order in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is not implementable. Citing presidential immunity to all incumbent heads of state by international law as reason for not implementing the court’s order against ‘politically motivated cases’, the PM’s appeal also asked the court if “such ‘valid justification’ ought not to have been sufficient ground to discharge the show cause notice as per precedent?”

The appeal then went on to say the order is not sustainable, terming it a ‘miscarriage of justice’.

Aitzaz reminded the court of favours extended by premier Gilani to the judges of the Supreme Court, while then referring to the actions of Pakistan’s last military dictator. He said that former president Pervez Musharraf expressly and brazenly flouted the historic order of this court on November 3, 2007. However, Musharraf, along with his associates, has yet to be formally charged and indicted.

“I have filed an appeal today. I have quoted more than 50 national and international cases and given specific reasons against the Supreme Court order,” Aitzaz told reporters. He had stated several times that he will not appear before the chief justice in the hearing of any case, but during the press conference today, he agreed to appear before the CJ.

The lawyer added: “My objection is that the court in its order on February 2 cited no specific reasons for initiating contempt of court proceedings against the prime minister.”

If convicted of contempt, the prime minister could lose his job and also be jailed for up to six months. Legal experts still maintain that the only way out for Gilani is to either appeal and win, apologise and hope for the best, or cave in and promise to write to the Swiss.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.

Jurists believe the second most senior judge after Justice Shakirullah Jan must have opted against becoming part of the bench Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry formed here on Wednesday to hear the prime minister’s appeal. Former Supreme Court Bar Association President Hamid Khan told The Express Tribune that the judge might have ‘recused’ himself because he is related to the prime minister.

Justice Jillani’s absence creates what the jurists call an unusual situation because benches are normally formed in odd instead of even numbers. “This is usually done to avoid an even split between the judges,” says prominent jurist Salman Akram Raja.

“Ordinarily, this does not happen. Benches usually have five, seven or nine judges to avoid complications in matters where judges have different opinions,” said Abid Hasan Minto.

Another judge could have been part of the bench if someone else would have been appointed after the retirement of Justice Sair Ali. At present the apex court requires another judge to complete its designated strength of 17 judges.

None of the seven judges, who have summoned the prime minister on February 13 for the framing of charges, are part of the bench hearing appeal against their order. “In this case you can’t even refer the matter to a referee judge,” Salman Raja said.

In high courts, where division benches are formed to hear tax matters, a case might be referred to third judge (called a referee judge), in case the two judges split over a decision.

Judges decide against hearing a case for several reasons – ranging from shaking off their personal likings and dislikings, giving their opinion in a matter heard earlier or on the basis of knowing either of the party in litigation.

The US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recused himself in an appeal filed by Salim Ahmed Hamdan – the driver of Osama bin Laden – whose case led to the decision against the trial of Guantnamo Bay prisoners by military commissions, Khan said. Justice Roberts had voted against Hamdan’s appeal, shortly before being nominated for chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Jurists say in case of an even split on an appeal by the prime minister, the seven-judge bench order shall be applicable.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2012.