Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. — File Photo

DAVOS: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said here on Friday he would be ready to go to prison if the court so desired, giving a clear hint how far his government was prepared to go to defend President Asif Ali Zardari on the issue of immunity in Swiss cases.

In an interview to CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the prime minister dwelt upon the question of immunity.

When asked what charges he faced in the court, Mr Gilani said the charges were not against him. “That is the old case which has been pending for a long time for which the president has already served about eight years in prison and now as the president of the country he has complete immunity,” Mr Gilani said.

He said the court wanted a letter sent to the Swiss courts, to “which we said that according to the Constitution he (the president) has a complete immunity not only inside Pakistan, but also transnational immunity not only for the president, the prime minister and even the foreign minister”.

“Do you expect to get to the prison?” the prime minister was asked.

“If the court so desires I have no objection,” he replied.

Answering a question, Mr Gilani said former president Pervez Musharraf would ‘certainly’ be arrested if he returned to Pakistan.

“In fact there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him,” he said.

“Certainly when he’ll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested,” he said.

Separately, Mr Gilani admitted there were a lot of challenges in the war on terror, including militancy in Pakistan’s northwest region.

“We are fighting for ourselves, for our own survival, because these militants, they have killed 30,000 innocent people, 5,000 brave soldiers,” he said.

The fight against terrorism had affected economy, he said.

“Yes, we are fighting a war on extremism and terrorism, and we’re a front-line state. Yes, there are a lot of challenges,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that there is no investment coming to Pakistan. We have offered very lucrative incentives for investment and there are a lot of investments coming to Pakistan.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Gilani warned of the widening technological gap between the developed and the underdeveloped world and stressed the need for bridging the gap to ensure a uniform socio-economic progress at all tiers. He was speaking at the opening session of the Informal Gathering of the World Economic Leaders, on the theme of “Defining the Imperatives for 2012”.

The gathering, a private meeting of heads of government, international organisations, senior ministers and select private sector representatives, was aimed at defining and prioritising the governance imperatives in 2012 to steer the global economy towards a new growth path.