Political turmoil in Pakistan as premier deposed

The Supreme Court ruling yesterday was a major escalation in a long-running confrontation between the judges and the government, and appeared to be a knockout blow against Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, effectively dismissing his Cabinet as well.

A spokesman for Mr Gilani’s Pakistan People’s Party acknowledged he “was no longer prime minister” but did not say what the government would do now.

Mr Gilani and his party, the largest in the coalition, held a meeting to discuss the ruling.

In the past, the party has said it would have the numbers in parliament to elect a new premier if Mr Gilani were to be ousted by the court.

Some suggested that he and his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari, might try to resist the order. That could spark institutional deadlock and social unrest, even raising the possibility of the army staging a coup as it has done three times in the country’s past.

The political chaos comes amid a near breakdown in relations between the United States and Pakistan, whose ties to the Afghan Taliban make it important in any negotiated settlement in neighbouring Afghanistan. Washington wants Pakistan to reopen supply lines to Afghanistan that were blocked in November to protest at US airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani border troops. The latest upheaval makes a speedy resolution more unlikely.

The Supreme Court ordered the country’s election commission to formally dismiss Mr Gilani and said he had not legally been the prime minister since April 26, when the court convicted him for contempt for refusing to open a corruption investigation against Mr Zardari dating back to the 1990s.

“The office of the prime minister shall be deemed to be vacant accordingly,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry.