ISLAMABAD, Dec 18 After over 24 hours of near paralysis in the government apparently because of the unprecedented Supreme Court verdict on the NRO, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani came out with a forceful defence of the government and at the same time suspended Interior Secretary Chaudhry Qamar Zaman and three immigration officials for preventing Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar from proceeding to China on the grounds that his name was on the exit control list.

Official sources said the prime minister's assertive move was in line with the PPP's decision to fight back against forces which were painting a doomsday scenario in the aftermath of the apex court decision declaring the NRO as unconstitutional.

Political analysts believe that the prime minister's statement has sent a clear massage to opponents that the government is very much in place.

“The government and the country faced humiliation when the defence minister was stopped from proceeding to our all-time friend China on an official visit,” the prime minister told reporters at a function.

The suspension of the interior secretary and three immigration officials was seen in political circles here as an attempt by the government to dispel an impression that it has virtually been paralysed after the court judgment and that the National Accountability Bureau has got another chance to open cases against NRO-tainted ministers afresh.

However, there is still a lot of confusion about implementation of the Supreme Court decision and whether the bureaucracy will follow the court orders or abide by the government directives.

Several centres of power have been active in Islamabad these days, making it difficult to know who is running the government.

The issue of barring the defence minister from going to China and removal of FIA director general Tariq Khosa, along with delay in his reappointment in the same post despite an SC verdict reflected a cold war between the superior judiciary and the government.

Observers fear that the confrontation would have repercussions and may derail the fragile democratic setup.

Meanwhile, the NAB, which announced on Thursday that the names of 247 NRO beneficiaries had been put on the ECL, said on Friday that the list carried the names of only 53 people whose cases were withdrawn under the controversial ordinance.

The NAB press release said “It has forwarded a list of 53 individuals whose names were placed on the ECL at the time of the promulgation of NRO to the ministry of interior for restoring their names on the ECL as on Oct 5, 2007. It is clarified that the name of Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was not included in that list of 53 persons.”

It could not be ascertained why and on whose instructions the name of the defence minister was put on the ECL.

Prime Minister Gilani indirectly criticised the judiciary and the media for raising the issue of NRO. “Many governments have gone since 1985, but I don't know why the buried cases are being remembered today. Former president Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and his cabinet engineered the NRO, but nobody is uttering their names,” he added.

In reply to question about cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, he said that a hefty amount of Rs5 billion had been spent on cases against PPP leaders. He said that Mr Zardari had already completed 12 years of imprisonment for the charges the NAB had so far failed to prove.

He said the Swiss government had categorically declined to reopen Mr Zardari's cases tried in Swiss courts. “The Swiss government is of the opinion that it cannot reopen these cases if they cannot be tried in Pakistan,” the prime minister said.