[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] has issued a temporary stay delaying the enforcement of a district court ruling compelling the testimony [JURIST report] of former White House Counsel and US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers before the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive]. The Thursday stay, which also temporarily suspends the ruling ordering current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profile] to turn over all documents subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee, will give the Court of Appeals time to consider the merits of briefs from the US Department of Justice and the Judiciary Committee. The Public Record has more.

In July, District Judge John Bates rejected arguments [opinion, PDF] that senior White House officials are protected from congressional subpoena by executive privilege. In February, members of the House voted [JURIST report] to hold Miers in contempt of Congress [Cornell LII backgrounder] for failing to testify and both Miers and Bolten in contempt for refusing to produce documents related to the attorney firings.

[JURIST] Pakistani national and provincial legislators on Saturday elected Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari [CV; JURIST news archive] as president. Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive], defeated two other candidates, including retired chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, put forward by Nawaz Sharif [JURIST news archive], leader of the PPP's former coalition partner Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). The PML-N withdrew from the coalition government [JURIST report] late last month following disagreements over whether to reinstate all judges ousted by former President Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive]. The Chicago Tribune has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

Zardari previously spent over eleven years in prison for allegations of misconduct during his wife's tenure as prime minister, although corruption and smuggling charges [JURIST reports] against him were dismissed earlier this year. Zardari and Bhutto were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder up to $12 million paid by companies that were contracted with the Pakistani government to perform customs inspections. Under the Pakistani Constitution of 1973, the president must be a Muslim, be at least thirty-five years old, and is elected by a electoral college composed of members of the Pakistani Senate, National Assembly, and Provincial Assemblies for a term of five years.