Islamabad: Pakistan Attorney General Irfan Qadir has said the Supreme Court has accepted the constitutional clause granting immunity to the president, and added that the government would also refer to the president`s immunity in the letter to the Swiss authorities.
Qadir said the letter to the Swiss authorities would ask for a reopening of graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, but in accordance with what was specified in the Pakistan Constitution, reports The Dawn.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf authorised Law Minister Farooq H Naek to withdraw the letter that led to the closing of graft cases against Zardari.
The court has insisted that the letter, written by then attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum to the Swiss authorities, be withdrawn.
The apex court has given time till September 25 to the government to produce a draft of the letter.
The Supreme Court had dismissed Yousuf Raza Gilani as premier on June 19, after convicting him of contempt in April for writing to Swiss authorities asking to reopen graft cases against Zardari.
Incumbent Ashraf was elected 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
