Contempt of court: SC rejects intra-court appeal, Gilani to appear on Feb 13

Gilani to face indictment charges for the government's two-year refusal to write to Swiss authorities.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected Aitzaz Ahsan's appeal to protect Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani from contempt of court.  

Gilani will appear before the court on February 13 to face indictment charges against him for the government's two-year refusal to write to Swiss authorities to revive cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that the final verdict could only be determined after the trial.

Prime Minister’s intra-court appeal hearing was held in the Supreme Court today. Aitzaz Ahsan said in his concluding remarks that he "respects the court" and wants it to take back its show-cause notice.

Earlier, Aitzaz Ahsan said that the court depicted “strict behavior” by giving Gilani a show-cause notice.

Ahsan said that the proceedings of contempt of court are “half of civil nature and half of criminal nature." He said benefit of the doubt should be given to the prime minister in this case, which is currently not being given to him.

Ahsan also prayed to the court that the decision should not be limited to the seven judges on the bench, just because they were the chief justice’s "colleagues".

The chief justice, during yesterday's hearing, had remarked that the appeal itself was in contempt of the court. He had 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.