A section of the government's legal experts are exhibiting a dovish attitude and have expressed optimism that a middle way would be found to avoid further confrontation between the executive and the judiciary in the NRO implementation case.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is learnt to have decided to commence consultations with both the doves and the hawks in its legal team as well as coalition partners in the coming week to decide whether or not the Prime Minister will appear before the Supreme Court on August 27 in a contempt of court notice.
The apex court on Wednesday, in its short order, issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on charges of contempt of court, asking him to appear personally before the court on August 27. Though no decision has been taken by the party leadership so far, however, sources within the ruling party said that some legal experts are advising the government not to let the Prime Minister appear before the court as there was no compulsion on the prime minister to appear before the court.
The government has decided to start consultations with its constitutional and legal experts in the coming week. PPP and its allied partners would also sit together next week to discuss the situation that may arise out the apex court show cause notice to the Prime Minister and the strategy of the government for the August 27 appearance of the Prime Minister which would require unwavering coalition support.
However, sources added that with Eid holidays coming by the end of next week, any final decision in this regard would be taken after Eid. According to sources, the PPP hawks have conveyed to the top party leadership, including the cabinet members, that the party should not let Prime Minister Ashraf appear before the bench hearing the NRO implementation case, as the outcome of his predecessor's appearances before the same bench in the past yielded nothing but a disqualification.
"We have conveyed to the party leadership that it would be unwise to allow another elected prime minister before the current bench of the Supreme Court, which has already disqualified the unanimously elected premier," said a senior PPP leader. He argued that the party should have stopped Gilani from his second appearance before the court and should have let the court announce his fate in absentia. "If the same bench has already decided the same punishment ...let it be without another elected prime minister standing before the bench as an accused", he added. Gilani was disqualified by the apex court on June 19 this year for not abiding by the court verdict to write a letter to Swiss court to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
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