Contempt charges: Ready for jail if court desires, says Gilani

PM maintains that president enjoys local and transnational immunity.

DAVOS:

Much like the climes he’s in, the prime minister was ice-cold in his reply to a question whether he expects to go to prison for contempt: “If the court so desires, I have no objection.”

In an interview with CNN on Friday – fittingly enough from Davos, Switzerland – Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani reiterated his stand on the issue for which he is facing contempt of court charges back home: Disobeying the Supreme Court’s orders to write a letter to authorities in Switzerland to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

“The court decided to send a letter to the Swiss courts … we said, according to the Constitution he (the president) has a complete immunity not only inside Pakistan, but also transnational immunity … not only for the president, the prime minister and even the foreign minister,” Gilani said.

“That is an old case, which is pending since a long time for which the president had also completed about eight years in prison,” he added.

He also told CNN that former President Pervez Musharraf would ‘certainly’ be arrested if he returned to Pakistan.

“In fact, there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court has already given a verdict against him,” Gilani told CNN.

“Certainly, when he’ll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested,” Prime Minister Gilani said in the interview, posted by CNN on its website.

Almost on cue, Musharraf’s party also announced on Friday that the former president had postponed his return indefinitely.

Gilani also said that people in Pakistan are ‘bitter’ over an air strike by Nato forces last November that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border.

“We have paid [such a high] price for the war on terrorism,” Gilani said. “People should appreciate our struggle.”

Aside from an assortment of interviews, the prime minister spent a busy day at the World Economic Forum – including a meeting with the former chief executive officer of Microsoft, Bill Gates, whose foundation contributes about $1 billion annually for the eradication of polio globally – Gates’ foundation has spent more than $85 million for the polio eradication programme in Pakistan.

The prime minister also appreciated Gates for his efforts to provide medical treatment to Arfa Karim Randhawa, the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world.

He said Pakistan has named IT educational institutions after her and invited Bill Gates to visit Pakistan and help set up high-quality education centres for the youth.

(Read: A question of presidential immunity)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2012.