The conflict has been brewing since 2009, when judges struck down an amnesty protecting President Asif Ali Zardari and hundreds of other politicians from prosecution on graft and other charges and ordered cases against them reopened. The government has resisted doing this, arguing that the president has immunity from prosecution.
The political uncertainty comes as the country is struggling with urgent economic and security challenges.
Earlier Tuesday, at least 26 people were killed when suspected Islamist militants detonated a bomb in a market in the northwest close to the Afghan border, the deadliest such attack in the country for several months.
Some independent commentators say the Supreme Court, which in the past has frequently been dragged into political disputes and on three occasions sanctioned military coups, is hostile to the current administration and is working with the army to oust it by “constitutional means.”
A five-judge panel accused the government of “willful disobedience” and said “the buck stops” at the office of Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani. The ruling, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said it could declare him unfit to hold office and dismiss him if he does not implement the court’s earlier verdicts.
It ordered the attorney general to appear before the court next week to explain the government’s foot-dragging.
Zardari is a major beneficiary of the graft amnesty, which was part of a broader US-backed deal to allow his wife and her political allies to return to Pakistan in 2007 and take part in elections safe from prosecution on charges they have long maintained were politically motivated.
The Supreme Court has zeroed in on one case that had been taken up by the Swiss government against Zardari that was halted in 2008 under the amnesty. Zardari and Bhutto were found guilty in absentia in a Geneva court in 2003 of laundering millions of Swiss francs. They were handed six-month sentences and fined, but both punishments were automatically suspended when they appealed.
The court has ordered the government to contact Swiss authorities to reopen the case.
Swiss prosecutors have told reporters that this was impossible because Zardari has immunity.
Zardari is also exposed to another scandal rocking the country’s political, legal and media elite surrounding a memo sent to the Washington last year seeking its help in reigning in the army. The Supreme Court is investigating that note, which some have dubbed treasonous.
