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The Pakistan Supreme Court has issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf over his failure to implement its directive of writing to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. "We hereby issue a notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf...to show cause why he may not be proceeded against for committing contempt," The Dawn quoted the court, as saying in its short order. Earlier on Tuesday, the Pakistan Peoples Party had decided it would not write to Swiss authorities and would 'resist' actions by the Supreme Court within the bounds of the Constitution. The PPP's frontline leaders also chalked out a strategy to cope with the situation if the Supreme Court disqualified Ashraf for contempt of court over not obeying its orders in connection with writing the letter. According to inside sources, PPP leaders were hopeful that Ashraf would survive for two to three months even if the apex court ordered his removal. Ashraf was elected as the premier after the court, on June 19, dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier after convicting him of contempt in April for refusing to reopen the multi-million-dollar case against Zardari The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder 12 million dollars allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts. The Swiss shelved the case in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government had been insisting that the president has full immunity. But in 2009 the apex court overturned the NRO ordering that the cases be reopened.

SC issues show-cause notice to PM Ashraf for contempt of court in Swiss letter case