The Supreme Court issued a summons two weeks ago demanding Gilani appear [JURIST report] at Monday's contempt hearing. Last month, Gilani honored previously issued summons by appearing before the Supreme Court to answer contempt charges [JURIST reports] and explain why he failed to purse corruption charges against President Zardari, who is accused of using Swiss bank accounts to fund bribes. The conflict between the prime minister and the court stems from an order that struck down [JURIST report] the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) [text] in 2009, which granted immunity to Zardari and 8,000 other government officials from charges of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1986 and October 1999. These proceedings reflect an ongoing struggle between the government and the courts in Pakistan. In December, the Supreme Court formed a judicial committee to investigate a secret memo [JURIST report] sent from an unknown Pakistani source to US Admiral Mike Mullen in May asking for help in preventing a suspected army coup.