Gilani prefers jail to writing to Swiss authorities

Reiterating his resolve to defy the Supreme Court order of writing a letter to Swiss authorities for reopening money-laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that it would amount to violating the constitution for which death sentence has been provided. “I would rather prefer to go to jail for six months by refusing to write the letter than subvert the constitutions and face death sentence,” Gilani said on Thursday while speaking to a gathering of Islamia University’s students in Bahawalpur, Gilani said that he is not writing a letter to the Swiss authorities according to the rules of business and the Constitution. “If I write the letter, it will be a violation of the Article 6 of the Constitution.” Prime Minister Gilani was served a contempt notice in the NRO implementation case when the government did not follow the court’s orders of writing a letter to the Swiss authority to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. He has been directed to write the letter by March 19 or present himself before the court on March 21 for necessary action. Gilani’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan has expressed surprise over the court order just while he was still arguing the case against contempt indictment of Gilani. He said he would respond to the new court orders on March 19. Gilani opposed the demand for the creation of Bahawalpur province, saying the demand is being made to sow discord among people majority of whom want creation of a Serariki province. He said that administrative rights were given to the Bahawalpur province in the British colonial era. “We don’t want administrative rights. We want our own provincial assembly.”