Pakistan Court Orders Dismissal of Premier

The judiciary is locked in a power struggle with the government.

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from office, escalating a power struggle that has diminished the government's ability to address pressing issues such as a Taliban insurgency and tattered relations with the U.S.

There was no immediate comment from Mr. Gilani. A spokesman for Mr. Gilani's Pakistan People's Party said the party had "reservations" about the order but acknowledged that Mr. Gilani "was no longer prime minister," according to the Associated Press.

The judgment on Tuesday is unlikely to lead to the fall of the administration, which has a majority in the nation's legislature. If Mr. Gilani steps down, lawmakers must appoint an interim prime minister to lead the government ahead of elections, which are expected in the second half of the year.

But the continued tussle between the government and judiciary adds to concerns about stability in Pakistan.
"It's not good news. It shows instability and the fragility of the political order," said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based political analyst. "All other issues, like Pakistan-U.S. relations, now, for another two weeks, nothing will happen."

The Supreme Court found in April that Mr. Gilani was in contempt of court for failing to follow judicial orders to open an investigation into alleged corruption by President Asif Ali Zardari. Shortly after, the speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly refused to disqualify Mr. Gilani, who has remained in power.
On Tuesday, the court ordered the country's Election Commission to disqualify Mr. Gilani as a lawmaker and prime minister.

Many in Pakistan see the Supreme Court as playing a key role in combating endemic graft. But the court itself has come under accusations of corruption in recent days.

Last week, a Pakistani real-estate investor alleged in court that he had paid almost $4 million in bribes to the son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in return for favorable legal verdicts.

Mr. Chaudhry's son denied the allegations. Supporters of the chief justice claim the case against his son is politically motivated by people who don't want to see an independent judiciary in Pakistan.

Supporters of the Pakistan People's Party-led government allege Mr. Chaudhry has overstepped his powers in recent years and is running a personal vendetta against Mr. Zardari, the president.

Tuesday's verdict, coming a week after the accusations against Mr. Chaudhry's son, deepens the impression the judiciary is locked in a power struggle with the government, Mr. Rizvi said.

Supporters of Mr. Chaudhry say the chief justice is playing an important role in cracking down on corruption.Mr. Chaudhry played the leading part in the lawyers' movement which, in 2008, forced out Gen. Pervez Musharraf's military-backed government. Harvard Law School presented Mr. Chaudhry with its Medal of Freedom.

Elections that year brought the Pakistan People's Party, or PPP, to power. Immediately, the newly empowered court, which had been a rubber stamp under Gen. Musharraf, took on the government.
One of the court's first acts was to overturn a decision by Gen. Musharraf to grant an amnesty to hundreds of politicians facing graft charges.The amnesty was meant to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to come home to contest elections without facing trial for corruption. Ms. Bhutto died in December, 2007, in a militant attack in Pakistan, leaving her widower, Mr. Zardari, to lead the PPP in the elections.

Mr. Zardari, who spent 11 years in jail in Pakistan in the late 1900s and early 2000s on graft charges but has never been convicted, also was covered by the amnesty.

The Supreme Court, after reversing the amnesty, ordered the government to reopen investigations into Mr. Zardari, who is a figurehead president but co-chairman with his son of the PPP.The charges against Mr. Zardari involve allegations he and Ms. Bhutto received kickbacks from a Swiss company in the 1990s.

A Swiss court in 2003 found them guilty but the verdict was overturned on appeal. Swiss prosecutors, with help from Pakistan's government, continued to build a case. Pakistan's government wrote to Swiss authorities after the amnesty saying it no longer wanted to cooperate in investigating Mr. Zardari. Swiss prosecutors subsequently closed the case.

In the past three years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ordered the government to write Swiss authorities asking for the graft investigation to be reopened.Mr. Gilani has declined to do so, citing Mr. Zardari's immunity from prosecution under Pakistan's constitution while he is a sitting president, leading to the contempt of court ruling.