Source: Friday Times.
By Najam Sethi
Most Pakistanis are apprehensive that the general elections scheduled early next year may be postponed on one pretext or another. This anxiety flows generally from a running conflict between the Supreme Court and the Zardari government but specifically from acute tensions between the Supreme Court (SC) and GHQ.
The Zardari government has finally written a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen the money laundering case against Mr Asif Zardari, thereby successfully defusing a confrontation with the court that led to the ouster of one prime minister for contempt of court. But now the judges are making two new demands of Mr Zardari: give up co-chairmanship of the PPP if you want to remain president; and stop being a partisan president, or else you will be held in contempt of court and disqualified from being president.
The Lahore High Court is about to conclude a petition challenging Mr Zardari’s right to hold two offices, that of the Co-Chair of the PPP and the Presidentship of Pakistan. It is also hearing a petition claiming that President Zardari is in contempt of court for politicizing the office of the President. It is expected to rely on 40 pages of observations by the SC on the subject of the bipartisan nature of the Presidency in its detailed judgment on the Asghar Khan-ISI case that concluded recently.