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Attorney General Irfan Qadir arrives to attend a Supreme Court proceeding in Islamabad. - Photo by AFP

ISLAMABAD: Attorney General Pakistan Irfan Qadir on Wednesday said that “a middle ground, in accordance with the law and the Constitution”, would be adopted in order to respond to the Supreme Court’s show-cause notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives outside the Supreme Court building, the attorney general said that all options provided in the Constitution would be employed in response to the court’s notice.

The show-cause notice for contempt of court was issued to Prime Minister Ashraf over his failure to execute the court’s directives in the NRO implementation case.

The attorney general said that he had not informed the president and the prime minister of the court’s Wednesday order as of yet.

Qadir moreover asserted that an individual could not request for immunity from the court and that it could only be granted by the Constitution.

The government has no option other than following the country’s laws, he added.

He further said that the government did not want a clash between the state’s institutions and was making adequate efforts to avoid a confrontation.

Earlier today, a fie-judge bench of the apex court issued the show-cause notice for contempt of court to the prime minister over his failure to implement its directive of writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The Pakistan People’s Party’s steady stance on the issue, also leading to the June 19 dismissal of Yousuf Raza Gilani, has been of non-compliance with the court’s directive for writing the letter and of resisting actions by the Supreme Court within bounds of the Constitution.

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