Pakistan tension
January 16, 2012
Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a contempt of court notice to the country's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, over his reluctance to aid the reopening of a corruption investigation against the president.
The court said Monday that Gilani had been called to appear on January 19. The summons marks the second time a sitting Pakistani prime minister has been called to answer charges of contempt of court.
The government is under pressure to write to Swiss authorities asking that corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari be reopened, a move Islamabad has so far refused to make.
During the 1990s, Zardari had multiple cases of corruption and even murder lodged against him, all of which he says are false and politically motivated.
An amnesty deal that protected him from prosecution was nullified in 2009 and the court has been pushing for the government to re-open and investigate the corruption cases ever since. The government refuses to do so, saying Zardari enjoys immunity as the head of state.
Troubled times
The court order against Gilani comes at a time of mounting tension between the weakened civilian government and the country's powerful military.
The recent unease began last week when Gilani told a Chinese news website that the military had breached the Pakistani constitution by commenting on a Supreme Court probe into the unfolding "memogate" scandal, which erupted last year over a leaked government document seeking US aid in preventing a feared potential coup.
Gilani then sacked the country's top defense official, who had been seen as the military's main advocate in the civilian bureaucracy. The move greatly angered the country's influential generals, who warned of "very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country."
Stability in Pakistan is of great concern to the international community, particularly the United States, as the nuclear-armed country of 180 million fights an insurgency against the Taliban.
A vote of confidence in the Zardari government is to be held in parliament later Monday.
Author: Darren Mara (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Sarah Berning