PAKISTAN'S Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, faces being disqualified from office, or even jailed, after the Supreme Court ruled it would charge him with contempt of court.

Mr Gilani faces the charge over his refusal to follow a court direction from two years ago. He has been summonsed to appear before the court on February 13. If convicted, he faces up to six months in jail and, almost certainly, disqualification from holding public office.

Ostensibly, the issue is Mr Gilani's refusal to obey the court's order to write a letter to Swiss authorities, allowing them to restart an investigation into corruption allegations against Pakistan's President, and Mr Gilani's boss, Asif Ali Zardari.

The $60 million that appeared in a Swiss bank account controlled by Mr Zardari and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, was allegedly grafted from cargo companies, and the court ruled it would set aside the President's head-of-state immunity so that he could be investigated.

But beneath the surface issue lies a power struggle. The Supreme Court Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is not sitting on the bench hearing Mr Gilani's case but appointed the judges to it, headed the court that initially threw out Mr Zardari's corruption amnesty.

Mr Zardari also reneged on a promise to restore Mr Chaudhry as Chief Justice - after the judge was sacked by the military dictator Pervez Musharraf - relenting only when the judge's supporters marched on Islamabad in 2009.