ISLAMABAD - The ruling PPP has evolved its strategy to ‘drag on’ the judicial process related to the two crucial cases including the Contempt of Court Act and implementation on NRO decision of the apex court till the time Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf could unveil his roadmap to the next general elections on August 14th.
Credible sources in the Federal Cabinet told The Nation on Wednesday that Law Minister Farooq H Naek briefed the meeting about the two cases but the Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on the advise of other colleagues decided to defer the issue for more legal input from the Law Minister.
However, some sources privy to the development said that ruling party and its coalition partners in the Cabinet have unanimously decided to defer the matter on writing letter to Swiss authorities until next step by the Supreme Court.
PPP legal brains seem confident that ruling party could safely buy time on the core question of letter writing to Swiss authorities until September by defending legality of government position on Contempt of Court Act.
Some sources believed that PPP leadership had attained sufficient legal grounds to defend its position on writing letter to Swiss authorities by making the Contempt of Court Act, 2012 as new law that provides legal immunity to the Chief Ministers, Ministers in addition to President, Prime Minister and Governors under Article 248.
They were of the view that the new law would serve as what they described as ‘safety valve’ to gain more time by contesting the question of immunity to the President under Article 248 and others now under the Contempt of Court Act 2012.
On the political front, the PPP and coalition partners have decided to camouflage the legal battle by creating an election environment to wriggle out of the challenging situation.
The PPP leadership in line with its political strategy would engage all the political forces in order to make a broad based caretaker governments both at the Center as well as the provinces to convene general elections in such a manner that nobody could raise a finger on the credibility of these elections.
In an important development, President Asif Zardari and former Prime Minister and PPP Senior Vice President Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani met late Wednesday and discussed the party’s future political strategy.
An official handout issued by Aiwan–e-Sadr said that Gilani apprised the President about the sentiments of the people of South Punjab about the proposed South Punjab province and the by-election in NA-151 Multan.
The President congratulated Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and his son Abdul Qadir Gilani on historic electoral victory in the by-election in NA-151 Multan and said that the people have reposed great confidence in PPP and Gilani.
Current political situation was also discussed during the meeting. The President also hosted a dinner for Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.