The Pakistan Prime Minister Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani today offered to resign shortly after the Supreme Court served him a notice for contempt of court for failing to reopen graft cases against the President, according to a media report.

Mr Gilani told a meeting of top leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and its partners in the ruling coalition that he was ready to quit if the step strengthened the government and parliament, ARY news channel quoted its sources as saying.

The PPP leader Mr Qamar Zaman Kaira, the Religious Affairs Minister Mr Khursheed Shah and Mr Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of the PML-Q, a key partner in the coalition, were being considered as possible replacements for Mr Gilani in the event of his resignation.

Mr Gilani convened the meeting of the PPP and its allies hours ahead of a crucial session of parliament that will vote on a resolution to shore up the civilian government.

The President Mr Asif Ali Zardari too joined the meeting.

Other sources told PTI that the PPP’s top leadership had discussed the premier’s resignation as a possible measure to ease the government’s standoff with the judiciary and the military.

The judiciary has been pressuring the government to reopen cases of alleged money laundering against Mr Zardari since December 2009, when it struck down a graft amnesty issued by former military ruler Mr Pervez Musharraf.

The apex court has also accepted the military’s request for ordering a probe into the alleged memo that had sought the US help to stave off a possible coup in Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May last year.

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