LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will continue to hold his office even if convicted in the contempt of court case, declares Governor Sardar Latif Khosa.
“There has been a consensus in the Pakistan People’s Party that there will be no replacement of Gilani (if he is convicted). In case of conviction, Gilani will not be disqualified from holding the office,” the governor, who is also a lawyer by profession, said in a talk with Dawn on Thursday.
Khosa was however quick to predict that Gilani would escape punishment in the case. “The prime minister cannot be convicted under the Constitution, and I hope the apex court decision will be in accordance with it (constitution).”
The prime minister, he said, had implemented the court order on the National Reconciliation Ordinance up to 99.9 per cent.
“There is only one issue of it left and that is writing a letter to the Swiss authorities regarding reopening of the cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. Legally speaking, the prime minister cannot be charged with the contempt case as he has followed the Constitution which gives immunity to the president,” the governor said, adding the parliament should decide this matter if anyone had an objection to the president’s immunity.
“The parliament has supremacy over all other organs of the state and this reality should be accepted,” he argued.
The governor said the people were expecting that the apex court would decide the Mehrangate scandal according to the law.
“But the question being asked by many as to why the court has not yet served notices on PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for allegedly receiving Rs3.5 million and Rs2.5 million, respectively, in the Mehran Bank scandal.
Money has been doled out to stop the PPP from coming to power in 1990 and the Sharifs and other characters had committed treason under Article 6 of the Constitution,” Mr Khosa said and complained that the Sharifs were always given relief (in courts).
“Read the 52-page confessional statement of Ishaq Dar in which he had revealed how the Sharifs made billions of rupees illegally through different businesses here and abroad. But the court has stopped the National Accountability Bureau from proceeding against them,” he said.
The governor also accused Shahbaz Sharif of working on the lines to divide Pakistan. “Shahbaz has deliberately been using provocative language against the leader of Sindh (Asif Ali Zardari) so that the people (of Sindh) start demanding dragging the Sharifs of Punjab on the roads.”
He said the Sharifs had realised that their party had no roots in other provinces of the country (except Punjab) and Azad Kashmir. “That is why they have decided to create as much hatred among the people of the provinces that may eventually lead to dismemberment of Pakistan. ‘Jag Punjabi Jag’ was also their (Sharifs) slogan. But we will not allow them to achieve their goal,” he said and added the Sharifs could go to any extent to meet their design.
The governor also criticised the Sharifs for their opposition to NRO. “The Sharif family availed the worst kind of NRO by tendering an apology to a military dictator. It was Benazir Bhutto’s strategy that paved the way for the Sharifs to return Pakistan. The NRO was, in fact, against the politics of hatred, fake cases and start of free and fair elections that resulted in democracy.”
He said the Sharifs were ‘compulsive liars’ as they never admitted their exile deal with Musharraf. “First they were in denial but when the agreement was made public they said they had done so without their free will,” he said.
Latif Khosa further said the emergence of Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaaf in Punjab was also a reaction of the Sharifs ‘bad language’ against the country’s leadership and the bad governance in Punjab.
Casting the PML-N away in south Punjab, the governor said in the next election the Sharifs’ party had no chance to win even a few seats there because of its anti-Seraiki province stance. “The people of the south do not believe in their (Sharifs) words that they are in favour of creating a province for them. The people are annoyed with them for spending resources of the area near their residences in Lahore,” he said.
Khosa said the PPP’s vote bank in Punjab was intact as its sympathisers would always give vote in the name of Bhutto. “Going into elections with the PML-Q and the PTI factor very much there, we will snatch Punjab from the Sharifs in 2013 elections,’ the governor said.
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