President Asif Ali Zardari. —File Photo

LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership has finally started discussing a Supreme Court order which requires the government to write a letter to Swiss authorities for reopening cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

In its last meeting held earlier this month, the PPP core committee had reiterated its stand that President Zardari enjoyed immunity under the Constitution and, therefore, the government should not write the letter.

But after the six options given by the apex court to the government to implement its verdict in the NRO case, some allies reportedly advised the PPP leaders to give a second thought to the matter.

According to a lawyer who is part of PPP’s legal team, the leadership has agreed to discuss the pros and cons of writing the letter.

“The leadership has asked Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naik, Leader of the House in Senate Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, Law Minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio, former law minister Babar Awan and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan to give their opinion on the matter,” he added.

He said the government was under immense pressure to implement the NRO judgment and a situation might emerge in coming days in which the government would be left with no option but to write the letter.

He said there was a section in the PPP which was in favour of writing the letter and believed that it would have no legal implications for the president. It would be only a legal formality, but the government’s gesture would help calm down the apex court.

But some hawks in the PPP are still against writing the letter. They are of the opinion that it would amount to a trial of Benazir Bhutto’s grave.

Khurram Latif Khosa, Supreme Court lawyer and son of Governor Khosa, said the Swiss attorney general had already conveyed to the government that the authorities could not try a person who enjoyed diplomatic or constitutional immunity.