Supreme Court convicts Prime Minister Gilani to symbolic sentence
Islamabad
(AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Supreme Court of Pakistan has condemned the Prime
Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for "contempt of court", because he has
ordered the reopening of an investigation file against President Asif Ali
Zardari over alleged corruption. The
head of state is alleged to have used branches of the Swiss Bank to
"launder money". However,
the courts have only imposed a "symbolic" sentence of "a few
minutes' detention inside the courtroom, the prime minister risked up to six
months imprisonment and disqualification from public office. The
incident has shocked public opinion in the country and laid bare the void between
the executive and judiciary, in a precarious balance that threatens to plunge
the nation into a civil war. Several
times, in fact, the army (the real power behind the judges) has become the
protagonist of coups that have upset the political and social status quo in Pakistan.
Thousands
of Gilani's supporters this morning accompanied him to the entrance to the
court in Islamabad, throwing rose petals and flowers. Huge
security measures were installed to prevent accidents, with at least a thousand
agents in the area allocated in riot gear and helicopters in the skies of the
capital. After
the hearing, the judge Nasir-ul-Milk has announced that "reasoning behind
the judgment" will be deposited in the coming weeks, and that "the
prime minister is guilty" for having "deliberately ignored" the
provisions of the Supreme Court.
He
is the first prime minister in Pakistan's history to be sentenced by the courts
while still in office, but it is symbolic sentence which nevertheless will drag
him to the center of fierce controversy and calls for the resignation . Political
analysts and columnists explain that now "the dispute will move from the
judicial arena to national politics" and will not be easy to predict
developments.
The Supreme
Court say Gilani ignored Gilani and his government have refused to obey the court's order to
write to Swiss authorities asking them to re-open money laundering cases
against Zardari. The government argues that. The
Prime Minister has instead defended by claiming to have received indications
that it was "unconstitutional" to continue the cause. At
the same time, the president said that the accusations against him are
"political in nature."
At
the center of the dispute is the 2007 amnesty for crimes of corruption, which
was quashed by the court in 2009 but the government wanted to maintain in
force, ignoring the judiciary. President Zardari - according to some analysts
the "real problem" at the heart of the crisis - and other prominent
politicians there are suspicions of heavy corruption.
During
the first hearings of the trial, some experts interviewed by AsiaNews stressed that the court case
would determine the "political survival" of the executive and the
possibility of carrying out a five year term "for the first time". Otherwise,
the sources added, it is likely that the country will be "torn apart by
infighting and bloody confrontations," which will see the different
branches of government pitted against each other: executive, judiciary and
military.
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