Zulfikar Bhutto’s death sentence: Bilawal moves SC for live streaming proceedings

Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari moved on Monday the Supreme Court (SC) for live streaming of proceedings on a presidential reference seeking to revisit the controversial death sentence given to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Aaj News reported.

A nine-member larger bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will take up the reference on Tuesday (December 12).

The PPP government on April 2, 2011, had filed a reference in the apex court to reopen the case of former prime minister and founder of the party Zulfikar Bhutto, who was hanged on April 4, 1979, in Rawalpindi.

SC may hear ‘Bhutto case’ next week

Former president Asif Ali Zardari forwarded the reference to the SC under clause 1 and 2 of Article 186 of the Constitution for revisiting the case.

Babar Awan had argued the reference on behalf of the PPP government.

Then in 2018, Bilawal had filed an application to implead party in the presidential reference, but it was not fixed in the last five years.

Today, in the petition, Bilawal said that Zulfikar 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”.

“It is in order to remove this stain and correct the wrong in history that the applicant has preferred the instant reference to bring on record the reality of the life of his grandfather, hence, the applicant wants that the hearing of this case, should be live/on Air, so that the whole Pakistan can hear it and this would be transparent for everyone,” the application said.