Court throws out Pakistan PM

 
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, center, surrounded by guards, leaves the Supreme court following a hearing in Islamabad, Pakistan.
19 June 2012

Pakistan’s top judges disqualified the country’s prime minister from office today, two months after he was convicted of contempt of court.

In the latest outbreak of a bitter feud between the civilian government and judiciary, the supreme court declared Yousuf Reza Gilani had “ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan”.

It creates new political turmoil in the nuclear-armed country. Mr Gilani’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is the largest in the ruling coalition.

The supreme court ordered the national election commission to dismiss Mr Gilani and said he had not legally been premier since April 26.

On that day, the court had convicted him of contempt after he refused to open a corruption probe against his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto.

Mr Gilani says he has done nothing wrong and accuses the court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, of waging a vendetta against him and his party. Many believe the judiciary is being backed by the military.

“Since no appeal was filed [against the 26 April conviction]... Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani stands disqualified as a member of the [parliament],” Mr Chaudhry told a packed court.

Mr Gilani’s adviser Fawad Chaudhry said the prime minister would continue work and any decision about his fate would be taken by parliament. The PPP was holding an emergency meeting and has said it would have the numbers to elect a new premier if he were ousted.

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