Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has assured the party leadership that he will vastly prefer resignation to writing a letter to Swiss authorities for reopening cases against the President, it is learnt. The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday dismissed federation's review petition on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and directed the concerned authorities to implement the apex court's decision of December 16, 2009 in letter and in sprit without any further loss of time.
According to reliable sources, a meeting of senior leadership of the party was held at the Presidency with President Asif Ali Zardari in the chair on late Friday night, the meeting discussed various options to deal with the situation following the Supreme Court's decision on government's review petition on NRO. Sources said some of the participants were of the view that the President should request the Supreme Court to also hear the petition regarding former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case.
Another section of PPP senior leadership present in the meeting advised the President to take the party into confidence before taking any future line of action on NRO and political developments thereafter. Sources said the meeting also discussed the possibility of calling general election before the Senate elections due in March 2011, as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan have already launched their election campaigns.
The President apprised the meeting that he would take political allies PML-Q, MQM and ANP into confidence about PPP's strategy. It is pertinent to mention here that PML-Q has already made it public that it will contest the next general election with the PPP. According to sources, when a question whether the Prime Minster Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani would write a letter to Swiss courts was raised, one of the participants said that the Prime Minster would prefer to quit instead of writing a letter to Swiss authorities.
Legal experts are of the view that the federal government has to write a letter to the Swiss courts in accordance with the decision of Supreme Court of Pakistan. If the government does not write the letter, it will be considered a contempt of court. The government failure in this regard may imply that the Prime Minister would be facing serious consequences.
The sources said the issue of 'Memogate' also came under discussion in the meeting. The meeting also discussed the formation of a committee to investigate the matter. When contacted, President's spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said the government has been implementing Supreme Court's orders in letter and in spirit and will continue to do so in future.