ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is expected to hear a presidential reference, seeking a declaration by the court that the hanging of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) was a “judicial murder”, next week.
The sources said that a larger bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, would hear the reference.
PPP government on April 02, 2011, had filed a reference in the apex court to reopen case of former prime minister and founder Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged on April 4, 1979, in Rawalpindi.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari forwarded reference to the SC under clause 1 and 2 of Article 186 of the Constitution for revisiting the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Babar Awan had argued the reference on behalf of the PPP government.
Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, in October 2018, had filed an application to implead party in the presidential reference of ZAB, but it was not fixed in the last five years.
The application mentioned that the spirit of justice that ZAB so admired was nowhere to be found when he himself was adorned with the noose of injustice. He was charged, convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, sentenced and executed on the testimony of an approver in the greatest miscarriage of justice that was ever to befall this country.
The application stated that Bilawal wanted to appraise the apex court of material facts which led to the unjust and brutal judicial murder of his grandfather. Besides that both his paternal uncles were murdered. His mother was martyred in a gun and bomb attack.
Bilawal stated that justice is not displayed in any of the cases. “So much sacrifice for this country itself warrants that he be heard regarding the real facts and circumstance of the case surrounding the brutal and unlawful execution of his grandfather.”
He stated that if miscarriage of justice is rectified and due care and diligence is exercised while dispensing justice then his purpose will be served and a victory will be achieved not only for himself but the victory will be of the people of democracy, and of justice and of judicial system.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was brutally executed as a consequence of a stroke of pen. His life cannot be brought back by a similar stroke but his dignity and valour can be restored and reflected correctly to some extent in the books of legal history of the country, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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