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Pakistan's Supreme Court convicted the prime minister of contempt on Thursday but gave him only a symbolic few minutes of detention inside the court, leaving the premier in power but weakened and facing fresh calls to resign. The ruling against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sharpened political uncertainty and tensions between the government and the court that have effectively crippled an administration struggling to tackle enormous economic and security challenges. The court had the power to sentence the prime minister to prison and order his immediate dismissal from office. It chose not to, delivering instead a symbolic punishment but one that could be used as the basis to push Gilani from power in the months to come. The parliamentary speaker and election commission must now decide whether the conviction is reason to dismiss Gilani as a lawmaker, and hence as prime minister. This could take up to four months and be contested legally every step of the way, meaning Gilani could remain prime minister until elections this year or early next. That may be taken as an achievement in itself in a country with a history of repeated coups and judicial machinations against elected governments. Gilani's resignation was out of the question, said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. "The prime minister has not been convicted of any moral crime. No one needs to give us a lesson in morality." | 
