ISAS Briefs

The spectre of Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani being convicted for contempt of court on 13 February 2012 – for flouting court orders to write to the Swiss authorities to re - open money laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari – threatens to plunge the country deeper into a political crisis. Benazir Bhutto, Zardari’s slain wife and a former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was the co - accused in those money laundering cases. It is widely believed that Gilani will now be formally indicted. Earlier, after a two - day preliminary hearing, the court was ‘satisfied prima facie that there is enough case for further proceedings’.