The new petition, probably to be filed today (Tuesday), is a bid to ease the mounting pressure on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to write a letter to the Swiss authorities against President Asif Ali Zardari.
President Zardari is said to have issued fresh instructions to legal aides in this regard late Monday night after he was briefed about the Supreme Court’s unexpected decision of not allowing the government to bring a new lawyer in place of Kamal Azfar after he was notified as the prime minister’s adviser on disaster management.
After hearing arguments of his legal team, President Zardari is said to have given a go-ahead to his team to file a new petition in the Supreme Court and challenge the process of implementation of the NRO, which threatens the foundation of the PPP government after judges decided to show zero tolerance on the decision not to reopen the Swiss cases against the president.
A source said the real importance of this new development can be judged from the fact that the new review petition might be filed by the PPP government legal team most probably today (Tuesday) — a day before the Supreme Court takes up the NRO implementation case on Wednesday.
The source said the government legal team would also file another petition challenging the decision of the Supreme Court to disallow it to bring a new lawyer to defend its review petition.
The new petition is likely to argue why it is important for the government to bring a new legal team to defend the NRO in its review petition and what are those circumstances, which led to the removal of Kamal Azfar. A long list of arguments has been prepared by the legal team of President Zardari to justify the transfer of Kamal Azfar from the NRO review petition case.
Another source said there was a strong possibility that one of the new members of new legal team may shock even the Supreme Court judges if a final decision is taken by the government by Tuesday to ask him to appear before the court to defend all cases against his ‘friend’ Asif Ali Zardari.
The sources said a top government team remained busy in giving final touches to the new petition challenging the implementation of the NRO judgment to justify as to why the government was not ready to write a letter to the Swiss authorities in line with the earlier direction of the court. The sources said like the judges, now this time the PPP government too had decided to apply a zero tolerance towards the Swiss cases and subsequently use all the available legal and constitutional options to stop the SC from putting pressure on the executive to take steps against the president of Pakistan.
The sources said the PPP government has made up its mind that it will be preferable to go down fighting instead of being seen as dictated by the court and then made to go home or collapse under the burden of the NRO judgment and its implementation. The sources said there was a realisation within the ruling elite that the superior courts would not give them any breathing space, despite the fact the government showed some positive gestures in the past to make the SC judges believe that it was seriously trying to implement the judgment wherever it was possible for the executive. “PM Gilani was not ready to hand over his own president to Swiss authorities as he feared that if he wrote any letter to Swiss authorities, then it would amount to withdrawing the immunity and he would face charges of violation of Article 6, which is punishable with death penalty,” the sources added.
The sources said now the government was once again under pressure because it will be asked the same old question as had the prime minister directed the Law Ministry to write a much disputed letter to the Swiss authorities or not? But the sources said the like the past nine months, this time too, the PPP government does not have any ‘news’ to share with the judges tomorrow (Wednesday).
The sources said in this background, it had been decided to immediately challenge the process of implementation of the NRO and the Supreme Court would be asked to form a larger bench to hear the review petition challenging the implementation of the NRO verdict.
