Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani refused on Friday to step down after his contempt of court conviction, saying only the country’s parliament could remove him from office."

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani refused on Friday to step down after his contempt of court conviction, saying only the country's parliament could remove him from office, AFP reported.

"There is no law to remove an elected prime minister, parliament is the supreme authority and only this parliament has the authority to remove me," the agency quoted him as saying in a defiant appearance in the lower house a day after the Supreme Court verdict.

Gilani had faced opposition calls to quit after the court convicted him for refusing to write to authorities in Switzerland asking them to reopen a multimillion dollar graft probe into President Asif Ali Zardari.

“I am an elected prime minister, representing 180 million people. How can any body order an elected prime minister to go home?" he said, adding that “only the speaker of the house, who is the custodian of this house, has the authority to decide. I am ready to quit if this parliament disqualifies me.”

His lawyer said Thursday he would appeal against the conviction, which opened the way for proceedings to unseat him as a lawmaker, but Gilani insisted he had done nothing wrong.

“I have not committed a crime, I have done nothing wrong but I have protected the constitution of this country," he said.