Pak PM 'cannot' write to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against Zardari, Govt. tells SC

Islamabad, July 24 (ANI): The Pakistan federal government, in its reply to the Supreme Court, has stated that the prime minister could not write the letter to authorities in Switzerland to reopen cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The reply stated that under the Constitution, the advice of the federal cabinet was binding on the prime minister and that the cabinet had not given any such recommendation to the premier, reports The Dawn.

The reply moreover requested the court to review its ruling of July 12, where a five-judge bench of the apex court had asked Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to submit a reply regarding compliance of the court's directions by July 25.

The court on June 19 dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier after convicting him of contempt in April for refusing to write to Swiss authorities seeking to reopen graft cases against the president.

Raja Pervez Ashraf was then elected as the new prime minister, who on June 27, was given two weeks time by the bench to indicate whether he would ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Zardari.

The allegations against President Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder 12 million dollars allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts.

The Swiss shelved the case in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government had been insisting that the president has full immunity.

But in 2009 the Supreme Court overturned the NRO, a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the cases be reopened.(ANI)