Pak SC frees PM Gilani after token 30-second sentence

The Pakistan Supreme Court today found Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against the President Asif Ali Zardari, but gave him no more than a light slap on the wrist - a symbolic sentence of a mere 30 seconds.

Gilani smiled when the seven-member bench announced its decision to impose the lightest possible sentence of confining him in the court's premises ''till the rising of the court''.

The Supreme Court found Yousuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt over his refusal to obey its order to write to the authorities in Switzerland asking them to reopen corruption cases against President Zardari. He faced a maximum sentence of upto six months' imprisonment, which if imposed would have sent Pakistan into fresh political and economic turmoil.

The court also ruled that Gilani had disobeyed the court's orders and ridiculed the court, and was liable to disqualification from membership of the country's directly elected national assembly.

That ruling could still unseat Gilani. Under Pakistan's constitution anyone convicted of defaming or ridiculing the judiciary is barred from being an assembly member. But legal experts say the process to disqualify Gilani could be a lengthy one, involving the parliamentary speaker and the Election Commission.

The speaker, with whom the decision to initiate disqualification proceedings lies, is a member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, to which both Gilani and Zardari also belong.