Gilani has been summoned to appear before the court on January 19.
Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, the country's attorney general, told a seven-member larger bench of the country's apex court on Monday that he had received no direction from the government in regard to a demand that information be provided on whether the government was intending to act on pursuing a corruption case in Swiss courts.
The case in the Swiss courts, dating back to the 1990s, alleges that Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's current president, among others, was involved in graft.
Monday marked the court’s deadline to Gilani’s government for reopening the stalled graft probe against Zardari. Gilani's government has contended that the president has immunity under the constitution.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported from Islamabad that the court's decision was "an important development", and that Gilani was left with limited options, including apologising to the court.
"The court, of course, can accept that apology. But so far the government appears to be on a collision course, not just with the judiciary but also with the military," Hyder reported.
'Memogate' commission
A commission appointed by the court on Monday also resumed hearings into the so-called "Memogate" scandal, which has invoked the powerful army’s anger and threatened the stability of the elected government.More on Pakistan crisis:
Memogate: Pakistan's evolving politics
Memogate: Timeline
Key players
Pakistan facing a coup?
PM says Democracy at stake
A secret memorandum allegedly written by Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States asked the US for help in thwarting a possible military coup in the aftermath of the US raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani territory.
The recent tussle between civilian leaders and the generals has invoked fears of another coup against the elected government.
Civil-military distrust has plagued the nuclear-armed South Asian country for almost its entire existence, with the military ruling for more than half of its 64-year history.
The counsel for Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman who served as the intermediary for the memo, told the Memogate commission on Monday morning that his client had been receiving "death threats", and requested to be given until January 25 to appear before the body.
RIM, the maker of Blackberry cellphones, meanwhile, has told the commission that it is unable to release data related to the case.
Threat of dismissal
Gilani has also called for a "show of confidence vote" in the parliament on Monday, which could provide a symbolic boost to the embattled civilian government.
Tensions heightened last week over the scandal when Gilani criticised the armed forces for co-operating with the court’s probe into the affair without going through the proper channels in the civilian government.
Inside Story discusses Pakistan's
civil-military tensions
Speaking at the parliament, after sacking his defence secretary, the prime minister said the standoff was nothing less than a choice between “democracy and dictatorship".
The prime minister’s comments followed a warning from the generals -who were infuriated by the memo - of possible "grievous consequences'' ahead. An army statement said the prime minister’s criticism of the army had been "divisive".
Last week, the court threatened to dismiss Zardari and Gilani if they continued to ignore its demands to reopen the corruption probes against the president.
It ordered government representatives to appear in court on Monday to explain what they planned to do.
In 2007, the leaders of Zardari’s PPP were granted a controversial blanket amnesty over corruption charges under the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The supreme court later struck down the NRO as being unconstitutional, but its rulings were never widely implemented, particularly when it came to pursuing legal cases against Zardari and other senior officials.
The PPP government has argued that the constitution gives a sitting president amnesty from prosecution.
No comments:
Post a Comment