Zardari may sacrifice another PM

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Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is ready to sacrifice another Prime Minister or the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government itself but will not give a green signal to write a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against him, official sources said.

“The President has decided that the letter won’t be written come what may”, a senior official at the presidency, close to Mr Zardari, told DC.

“There are some people (including cabinet members) in the PPP who have supported writing of the letter but President Zardari decided against it”, he added. On August 27, the Supreme Court allowed Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf another three weeks to write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Zardari.

The court directed the Prime Minister to appear again before the court on September 18, 2012.
Mr Ashraf’s predecessor, Yousaf Raza Gilani, was sacked on June 19 for repeatedly refusing to write the same letter to reopen Zardari cases.

The official said Mr Zardari rejected law minister Farooq Naek’s proposed draft of the Swiss letter. “The law minister came up with a draft but the President rejected it. He said the PPP government won’t write the letter”, the official said.

Earlier, it was said that the PPP is thinking of writing the Swiss letter at the end of September with an agreed draft after the 15-year limitation of case investigation is over.

However, the official said that after intense deliberations, it has been decided that no letter would be written to the Swiss authorities for reopening of the closed cases.

Sources said when Mr Naek’s draft was presented before a high-level PPP meeting, it was objected to by former prime minister Gilani, who asked Mr Naek whether he can give a guarantee that the Supreme Court will accept this draft and will not disqualify another Prime Minister.

Mr Zardari also objected to Mr Naek’s draft, saying that he doubted that after dispatching this letter the Swiss authorities may initiate proceedings against him. “President Zardari, before leaving for Iran visit, had decided in principle and conveyed it to his legal team that the PPP government will continue with its initial stance,” another Prez aide said.