Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has decided not to appeal his conviction by the Supreme Court on contempt charges against the backdrop of National Assembly speaker’s ruling that the conviction does not disqualify him as an MP and to become primer minister.Gilani was found guilty by the Supreme Court last month over his refusal to ask Swiss authorities to re-open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The court briefly — but symbolically — held the prime minister in the courtroom for his sentence, which ended as soon as the judges arose for the day after announcing the verdict.
Under the constitution, anyone convicted of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary is barred from being an MP. The speaker has to refer any disqualification process to the election commission.
Gilani weighed the risk of possible confirmation and an adverse ruling further elaborating the original verdict of 7-member bench on April 26 and instead preferred to go down in history as the first ever prime minister to be convicted.
“He may be a convicted premier but the speaker’s ruling has determined that his conviction does not entail disqualification,” prime minister’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters in Lahore after filing a statement in the Supreme Court that the premier has opted not to content his conviction.
Ahsan told the advocate on record of the court that he ‘can go home’ as an appeal would not be filed. The decision was taken as the deadline for filing the plea was about to expire.
Later talking to reporters, Ahsan said the decision not to file an appeal was of political nature and taken by the premier and the PPP leadership who believe that the speakerÂ’s ruling is final, has closed any further disqualification proceeding in the Election Commission and that the ruling cannot be challenged.
Ahsan said: “The decision not to file the appeal (against conviction) has been taken after consultations by the party leadership.”
Ahsan said that he had prepared the appeal and was ready to file it in the Supreme Court when Gilani called him late on Friday and told him not to do so after the speakerÂ’s ruling a day before.
“The prime minister has served his sentence, but he has not been disqualified,” Ahsan said. Ahsan like many other leading jurists, however, said a writ petition can be filed in the high court against the speaker’s ruling.
Eminent jurist and former law minister Senator S. M. Zafar said that Prime Minister Gilani had committed contempt and brought the judiciary under ridicule according to courtÂ’s verdict and had apparently been advised that this judgment has least possibility of reversal in an intra-court appeal before a larger bench of the Supreme Court.
He said the speaker had misinterpreted her authority to overrule the court’s unambiguous judgment that he had put it under ridicule which entails disqualification from becoming an MP or the prime minister. “He chose a safer course while continuing to cast doubts on whether the court’s judgment means disqualifying him to hold the office,”
Another leading jurist Salman Raja who is also counsel for GilaniÂ’s son in the drug scam has expressed surprise that the prime minister did not file appeal and accept to live with the stigma of being a convicted person. He said the speakerÂ’s ruling can be challenged in either a high court or the Supreme Court.
A report from Karachi said a writ petition against the speakerÂ’s ruling has already been filed in Sindh High Court.
Ahsan insisted that the courtÂ’s reference to ridiculing the judiciary was illegal as this charge was not levelled during the contempt case. He said he had raised 146 objections against conviction on a charge which was not part of the indictment. He regretted that his hard work had gone waste as he had counted 146 flaws in the court judgment.