And he now faces the prospect of facing a contempt of court charge and if the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry presses ahead with his resolve, he runs the risk of being removed, a fate that Yousuf Raza Gilani had met a month ago.

Early this week, Prime Minister Ashraf conveyed to the Supreme Court hearing the case that its order was “not implementable” and reiterated the old refrain that Asif Ali Zardari had immunity from prosecution as long as he remained the Head of the State. The Judges don’t share this perception and in fact that Zardari had no such immunity as the ‘offence’ had occurred before he became the president of Pakistan. As a corollary to this interpretation of immunity law, the Supreme Court bench insists that the Prime Minister as head of the government should write a letter requesting that Swiss authorities reopen a corruption case against the Pakistani president dating back to the 1990s.

The deadline on the court order was Wednesday but Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who is heading the bench, extended it to August 8. Attorney General Irfan Qadir, who appeared for the government, alleged that Khosa was biased against the president and requested him not to hear the case. The judge rejected the demand.
"Observers see Prime Minister Ashraf as a stop–gap arrangement".

The legal battle over the issue of immunity is a fall-out of the Musharraf era National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that had facilitated the return of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan and granted Benazir, her husband Zardari, and some PPP leading lights immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes committed between 1986 and 1999.  Benazir did not live long enough to enjoy the NRO benefit as she was assassinated at the height of the 2008 election campaign. Her party had however won on the sympathy wave and Zardari became the President.

These changed on the political scene coincided with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry emerging as the darling of the masses particularly the middle and upper middle class by standing up to the military junta which had sacked him. On the crest of a popular campaign for his recall, the first ever such movement in Pakistan, Justice Chaudhry returned to the bench despite President Zardari’s best efforts to stop him in his tracks. Soon he became an activist judge though for much of his judicial career he regularly rubber stamped the decisions of the military junta.

Zardari’s troubles do not end with judiciary. Former cricketer Imran Khan has emerged as a rallying point with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, (PTI), party with considerable support amongst the youth, who constitute almost 47 per cent of the country’s population. The PPP government has not covered itself with glory on economic front and has pushed the country to its worst ever energy crisis. Some areas of Northwest Frontier Province and Gilgit are hardly getting any power with ‘blackout’ lasting for over 22 –hours at a stretch.

– m rama rao