PPP premier will never write Swiss letter, says PM's lawyer

Lahore, Aug. 31 (ANI): Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan has said the government would never write to the Swiss authorities asking to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Ahsan said it was impossible for any PPP prime minister to write to Swiss authorities.

"How is it possible that an incumbent PPP prime minister would write to Swiss government after the former was sent home for not doing so," The News quoted Ahsan, as saying.

The Supreme Court had dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier on June 19, after convicting him of contempt in April for refusing to reopen the multi-million-dollar case against Zardari.

Incumbent premier Ashraf was elected as the premier after Gilani's dismissal.

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. (ANI)