Pakistan PM Gilani indicted by top court

Islamabad, Feb 13 (IBNS) Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was indicted by the Supreme Court of the country on Monday in the contempt of court case.

Gilani, who pleaded not guilty in the court, is the first prime minister of Pakistan to have been indicted by the top court.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday had rejected the Intra Court Appeal (ICA) filed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani requesting it to suspend its decision of framing contempt charges against him for his refusal to reopen graft cases naming President Asif Ali Zardari.

The two-page chargesheet against Gilani was read out. Gilani told the court that he read it and understood it. He will have to appear next in court in person on Feb 27 and 28, reports said.

If convicted he could be in jail for six months.

Earlier, Gilani had said that he would step down by natural course from the position if he is convicted by the Supreme Court in a contempt case.

Gilani was quoted in an Al Jazeera TV interview on Sunday saying that if convicted of contempt, "he would automatically lose his office so there was no need for him to quit."

"There´s no need to step down," he said. "If I´m convicted, then I´m not supposed to be a member of the parliament."

He said the cases against Zardari are politically motivated ones.

"There had been a lot of cases against him, and they were all politically motivated," he said.

On Feb 10 Gilani´s appeal against the contempt petition was rejected.

The decision was arrived at by an eight-member larger bench that heard the appeal filed by PM's counsel Aitzaz Ahsan against the decision of a seven-member SC bench.

A show-cause notice had been issued to the Gilani on Jan 16, 2012 for not implementing the apex court judgment on a corruption case over National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) dated Dec 16, 2009 that named President Zardari.

The Prime Minister appeared before a seven-member bench and stated that implementation on NRO judgment was not presently possible as the President has immunity under article 248 of the Pakistani constitution.

On Feb 2, 2012, the bench decided to frame charges against the premier on Feb 13, 2012 and in an appeal filed through his lawyer on Wednesday, Gilani pleaded before the court to repeal its order and suspend the proceedings against him.

The chief justice questioned Gilani's counsel 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.

An increasingly assertive judiciary that has been progressively tightening screws on the country's embattled leadership in recent years and may have been further emboldened by widespread resentment of the government, has already called Gilani a ´dishonest' PM.