Pakistan People's Party has wisely devised Plan-B to avoid disqualification of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the NRO implementation case, sources close to PPP revealed to Business Recorder. Plan B, they maintain, is different from the earlier thinking of the leadership where prominent electables were favoured to replace former prime minister Gilani.
Thus when Gilani faced imminent disqualification for refusing to write to Swiss courts to reopen anti-graft cases against President Zardari, the party leadership proposed names of electables like Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Ahmed Mukhtar... yet this time around the party is not willing to forego its electables. Plan B envisages electing those on reserved seats as new premier, it is learnt reliably.
Informed sources privy to developments told Business Recorder that President Zardari is considering selecting from a list of women parliamentarians from the Lower House on reserved seats. In addition this time around the government will not wait for the court to disqualify the prime minister but he would tender his resignation before being disqualified so that he remains eligible to stand for elections in 2013.
The most likely candidate in the event of Raja Parvez Ashraf's resignation is Rukhsana Bangash, the political advisor to the President. Sources said initially the party planned to authorise Law Minister Farooq H Naek to take on the sole responsibility of dealing with Swiss authorities with the objective of making him liable for contempt instead of the Prime Minister but legal experts argue that the Prime Minister, being the chief executive, would face action in case of failure to abide by the court orders.
According to these constitutional experts, the Law Ministry is only playing a role of 'post office' and is not the final authority to decide whether to write to Swiss authorities or not. However, renowned constitutional expert, Justice Wajihuddin (Retd) said that the court will issue contempt notice to the Law Minister in case he defies the court order deliberately and if he is going to tell the court that he has been directed by the Prime Minister to do so then the Prime Minister would have to face contempt proceedings.
During the previous proceedings of the Supreme Court, the Law Minister showed the draft of the letter to the apex court judges hearing the NRO implementation case at the chamber of Chief Justice of Pakistan. The judges, however, raised objection on some clauses and the Law Minister informed the judges that he would discuss the amendments suggested by the judges with the Prime Minister, sources maintained. The Supreme Court has fixed Friday to hear the contempt of court notice issued to the Prime Minister in the NRO implementation case while President Zardari has also summoned the National Assembly session on the same day.
"In case of any situation that would cause disqualification of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf - he is primed to resign and a new prime minister from the reserved seat would be elected during the upcoming session of National Assembly," the sources revealed. Constitutional experts said there is no legal and constitutional bar on electing MNA on reserved seat from becoming the country's prime minister.