Pakistan prime minister has asked Swiss authorities to reopen an old corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, succumbing to pressure from the country's Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court gave Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf until November 14th to submit the request, threatening to charge him with contempt of court or face disqualification if he did not comply. The case has fuelled tensions in a long-running stand-off between the government and the judiciary.

Ashraf's predecessor, Yusuf Raza Gilani, was declared in contempt of court in June over the same issue and disqualified from holding the post of prime minister.

Swiss judicial authorities began investigating allegations in the late 1990s that Zardari, and his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had taken kickbacks some 12 million dollars from Swiss cargo inspection companiese.