Can Aitzaz pull the chestnut out of the fire

Counsel of the Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has said today is the historic day in Pakistan that an elected premier appeared before the apex court.
Aitzaz observed, “Respect of courts is our prime responsibility. However, President Asif Ali Zardari enjoys blanket immunity in this case.”
In what appeared to be a wise decision, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on the other day appointed Aitzaz Ahsan as his counsel in the contempt of court notice that he was served on January 15 for not implementing court’s rulings in the infamous NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) cases.
The counsel stated that the prime minister was advised by the Law Ministry to not write a letter against the president. “I had been publicly saying that writing the letter would not make any difference,” he added.
Ahsan continued that he would establish from record that the prime minister acted bona fide in not writing a letter to the Swiss authorities. In his view the premier had not committed contempt of court by not writing the letter against the president.


The self-serving sense of security since acquiring the services of Aitzaz failed to silence ominous whispers, though. More than a dozen active reporters and some opposition legislators kept telling me at Parliament House that Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani would go to the Supreme Court Thursday morning after tendering resignation from his office. Passionately peddling the said claim, they never cared to consider that if quitting office appeared as the only option for Gilani, he would not have engaged Aitzaz Ahsan.
Although a PPP veteran, Aitzaz had mostly been feeling sidelined by his leaders since the murder of Ms Bhutto in December 2007. Only around four months ago did he start getting the feel of being wooed back by none other than President Zardari. When Ejaz Butt’s contract as Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board had expired, the president invited him with Ms Bushra Aitzaz for an exclusive dinner.
Zardari did everything to convince the lawyer during that dinner to take control of the board to revive cricket in Pakistan. Aitzaz is almost mesmerising when talking for or against any issue. Yet, at the said dinner, he found it too hard to find appropriate words to say ‘no’ to the president and ended up strongly pushing the name of former star-batsman Majid Khan for the same position. The warmth between him and the president has continued deepening since then. Zardari brought this out in public and that, too, on a solemn occasion.
On the fourth anniversary of Ms Bhutto’s murder, President was addressing a big crowd of the PPP loyalists in Naudero, but he finished his speech in the middle after noticing the presence of Aitzaz and requested him to ‘appropriately remember’ his leader with passionate rhetoric. We should not be surprised if the new-found love for Aitzaz Ahsan also gets reflected in his selection as the senate chairman. Farooq Naik could have continued in the said office, but his ‘loyalty’ was made to appear ‘suspect,’ where it really matters, by some regular visitors to the President’s office, when Naik was sitting there during the treatment of Zardari at a hospital in Dubai.