Pakistan's Supreme Court Tuesday ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for alleged involvement in corruption during his tenure as minister for water and power.
Ashraf was accused of receiving kickbacks when the government hired electricity production companies to set up power projects to deal with Pakistan's energy shortages.
The court said in its orders that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the government's anti-corruption body, should arrest 16 people, including the premier, within 24 days.
"We direct the additional prosecutor general (of the) NAB that he should undertake all the necessary steps during the course of (the) day ... against the accused persons and to cause their arrest without any hesitation," the court order said.
It also said that head of accountability bureau will be personally responsible if any of the accused persons escape the country.
The electrical projects were initiated when Ashraf was power minister from 2008 to 2011. His name later surfaced as one of the key beneficiaries of the project.
The spokesman for the prime minister's office was not immediately available for comments. The government did not issue any formal reaction regarding the court ruling.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told local Geo News television that the government had not received any "written orders" from the court.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told journalists that Ashraf "was prime minister and will remain prime minister."
Faisal Saleh Hayat, a lawmaker, filed the case against the projects in the Supreme Court in 2009 after media reports about corruption in the awarding of the contracts to private companies surfaced.
Hayat on Tuesday said the arrest order was a "landmark" ruling.
"Whenever the history about justice in Pakistan is written, today's decision will be at the forefront," Hayat said in his remarks to Geo News television.
The court had dissolved the electricity projects in March 2012. It also imposed heavy penalties on the electricity companies for being involved in corruption and failing to complete the projects in time.
The court also directed the NAB to indict the people involved, including Ashraf, after additional thorough investigation. He was summoned by the bureau in April and interrogated for more than three hours.
The rental power project began in 2008 when government agreed to the installation of 14 mid- and large-scale power plants to produce around 1,500 megawatts of electricity.
Later more projects were added and, by the time the project was dissolved by the court, the government had approved 19 plants with the collective capacity of 2,734 megawatt.
Very few companies finished their work on the project in time. Many did not even finish installing the power plants.
During his tenure as minister of water and power, Ashraf was criticized for his failure to resolve Pakistan's continuing severe power shortages, which continues to be one of the biggest challenges for the current government.
Ashraf became the prime minister in June after his predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, was sacked by the court for failing to implement the court's orders to reopen a separate corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Pakistan People's Party-led government has clashed with the judiciary on several occasions. The confrontation started when the court rejected a proposed Amnesty Law in 2009, which would grant immunity to Zardari and many other senior government figures from corruption and criminal charges.
Reports about the court orders to arrest Ashraf came as Muslim cleric Tahir ul Qadri was in middle of a widely followed speech accusing the government of corruption.
"All should say their mid-day prayers along with thanksgiving and prepare for tomorrow's rally ... The work left behind will, God willing, also conclude. Victory! Victory! Victory!" Qadri said, in the middle of his speech, after he was told by his assistant about the court's decision to have the prime minister arrested.
Meanwhile, in the southern province of Sindh, a stronghold of the governing party, some people took to streets to protest the court's arrest order.