To do as the court says

Should the prime minister fail to write the letter, the PPP will have no one but itself to blame for the consequences.

There are many possible reasons why Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani has defied the Supreme Court’s orders and refused to write a letter to the Swiss authorities asking them to reopen their case against President Asif Zardari. He may be trying to play out the clock to a time when it may not matter whether the letter is written or not, i.e. right before a general election. Or, he may even genuinely believe that the president’s immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution gives him the authority to ignore the Supreme Court’s directive. Whatever the reason may be, after yesterday’s hearing, where the Supreme Court dismissed the prime minister’s appeal against a possible indictment on contempt charges, Gilani now has no option. It is time for him to write the letter so that there is no reason left for the apex court to indict him on the said charge. The PPP and its defenders have argued that the Supreme Court is against its government. These suspicions, which in any case are impossible to prove, should not mean icence to ignore the court’s orders. The prime minister has flirted with contempt of court before by refusing to follow the Supreme Court’s orders on appointments before giving in at the last minute. He now has till February 13 to do the same in the Swiss corruption cases. Should he fail to write the letter, the PPP will have no one but itself to blame for the consequences. And those consequences could extend to the removal of the prime minister from office.

The PPP may well be justly aggrieved that it is surrounded by hostile institutions from all sides. But the prime minister’s actions reek of protecting the president over our system of democracy. Even if the president’s immunity is upheld, it will no longer be applicable once he is out of office and in that eventuality there may be no legal or constitutional hitch in preventing the Supreme Court from going ahead on this issue. That is why it is better right now for the prime minister to do as the court says.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2012.