ISLAMABAD - Beneath the ostensible calm in the face of the judgement in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani reserved by Supreme Court, the PPP leadership was engaged in hectic activities to cope with the situation on political horizon in case the court would pronounce PM guilty.Sources in the government informed that though Prime Minister Gilani had several times said that in case of conviction he would neither claim clemency from the President nor would stay in the office of Prime Minister as the moment he would be convicted by the court he would not even remain a member of Parliament.But there was strong possibility that Gilani would not bow out calmly and would drag the apex court in the legal complexities and the Prime Minister would stay in office even after his conviction by the court till the time the procedure of his de-seating as member of the Parliament would be completed, as hinted at by his counsel Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan while talking to media after the court proceedings on Tuesday.Under the law the Supreme Court conviction verdict would be sent to Speaker National Assembly who would prepare a reference and forward it to the Election Commission of Pakistan and then after completing the tedious procedure the Chief Election Commissioner would finally de-seat the Prime Minister as Member Parliament and subsequently he would lose the slot of Prime Minister.Sources in the PPP informed The Nation that the party leadership was prepared not to let it be an easy affair and would fight back tooth and nail but the doves in the Prime Minister’s camp were of the opinion that instead of locking horns with apex court the Prime Minister should step down immediately in case court would pronounce him guilty of contempt of court with the aim to swing the public opinion in favour of the PPP and by portraying him as another political martyr.As the hawks and doves in the party were sticking to their point of view the final decision in this connection would be taken by the party’s top leadership and most likely President Asif Ali Zardari, who is Co-Chairman of the party would land back in the Federal Capital on Wednesday (today) to draw future course of action.Sources in the party further informed that PPP had prepared alternate plans and in case of conviction of the Prime Minister the party would bring another party loyalist to fill the vacancy of the slot for which a number of names were already under review.Sources in the party said that the next candidate would likely be brought from Punjab and the most likely choice would be Makhdoom Shahbuddin while some circles were also giving the name of President Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur to be the likely choice of the party.Political and legal experts commenting on the situation said that the apex court may grant one last chance to Prime Minister Gilani on Thursday to write letter to Swiss authorities to avoid contempt of court and as decided by the party leadership the answer of the Prime Minister would be ‘no’ which would ultimately lead to his conviction in the case and may be handing down token imprisonment which could be till the rising of the court.Under the law a person could be handed down up to six month of incarceration in contempt of court but most likely the court would award token imprisonment to Prime Minister, which would also lead to his disqualification as MP.In the meantime the PPP leadership continued their tirade against the apex court and to browbeat the superior judiciary by openly commenting on the court proceedings and even the defence counsel in the case Barrister Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan after apex court reserved judgement in the case said that even in case of conviction the Prime Minister would stay in office till the time the process of his de-seating would not be completed. He further said that Prime Minister would not ask for Presidential clemency in case he was handed down imprisonment by the court.Legal and political observers saw all these utterances by the PPP leaders as pressure tactics to intimidate the superior judiciary and tantamount to influencing the court verdict as this practice continued throughout the trial and could rightly be dubbed as the case mainly contested in media instead of the court.