Legal action: Court asked to disqualify Gilani

Petition says PM failed to implement order regarding dual offices.

LAHORE:

A petition has been filed before the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking disqualification of the prime minister and action against him for allegedly defying court orders and subverting the constitution.

Petitioner Allah Bakhsh Gondal through his counsel, AK Dogar, submitted on Tuesday that the government had been on a collision course with courts since the Supreme Court verdict against the National Reconciliation Ordinance in December 2009. He said the verdict remained un-implemented despite lapse of 20 months.

“The government is yet to contact the Swiss authorities for reopening of $60 million corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari despite SC instructions to the effect,” he said.

The petitioner said a close confidante of the president was appointed as the National Accountability Bureau chairman and the procedure set in the SC ruling against the appointments of the then NAB prosecutor general and acting chairman was not followed.

The appointment was made in a controversial manner, he said. The petitioner said Prime Minister Gilani had also not taken any steps to implement the May 12 verdict of the LHC, suggesting that President Zardari give up PPP co-chairman’s office.

He said the president continued his political activities and had met the newly-elected PPP members of the Azad Kashmir legislature on July 9 to discuss formation of government.

President Zardari, the petitioner said, had also met PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senior Federal Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and then a delegation of the Awami National Party at the presidency.

He said the PPP leaders in Sindh gave a strike call against the SC ruling and later former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza publicly criticised the apex court’s verdicts.

The PPP government, he said, threatened the federation and attempted to subvert the constitution by playing the Sindh card. The petitioner further said the prime minister was no more powerful than a puppet controlled by President Zardari. “Zardari’s dictatorship in the garb of democracy has undermined the supremacy of the parliament,” he said.

The prime minister failed to ensure implementation of the SC verdicts. This, he said, was a proof of his disloyalty to the state.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2011.