Pakistan’s top court yesterday summoned new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to appear later this month to face possible contempt charges, the clearest sign yet it could dismiss a second prime minister in a showdown over corruption cases.
The Supreme Court — which disqualified and convicted former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over the issue — summoned his successor on Aug. 27 for ignoring a request to ask Swiss authorities to reopen cases against Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
It is the latest episode in a two-and-a-half-year saga in which the government has resisted demands to have Zardari investigated, arguing that as head of state he enjoys immunity.
The government is due to become the first in Pakistan’s history to complete an elected, full five-year mandate in February next year, but the showdown could force polls before then.
The court had given Ashraf until yesterday to write to Switzerland and last week struck down a new law passed by parliament that sought to exempt members of the government from contempt trials, clearing the way for legal proceedings against the prime minister.
Pakistani Judge Asif Saeed Khosa said Ashraf had been given notice “under [the] contempt of court act 2003, read with article 204 of the constitution to show cause as to why he may not be proceeded [against] in contempt of court by not complying [with the] relevant direction of the court.”
“He shall appear in person at the next date of hearing. Hearing adjourned until August 27,” Khosa added.
Critics of the judiciary and members of Zardari’s main ruling Pakistan People’s Party accuse the court of over stepping its reach and waging a personal vendetta against the president.
The government had wanted the case adjourned until next month. Attorney general Irfan Qadir said he needed time “to bridge the gap” between the two sides and “find an amicable solution.”
Experts say Ashraf will be asked to explain his position on Aug. 27. If the court is not satisfied, he risks being summoned to be indicted for contempt, precipitating the second contempt trial against a sitting prime minister in just months.
The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder US$12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.
The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government insists the president has full immunity as head of state.
However, in 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the cases be reopened.
Zardari had already signed the contempt law, which sought to exempt government figures, including the president, prime minister and ministers from contempt for acts performed as part of their job.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS