Law minister resigns to plead ZAB reference: we're taking the issue very seriously: CJ

Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Babar Awan on Wednesday tendered his resignation with a view to becoming the lead counsel in the Presidential Reference for the case of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) founding father and former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Babar Awan prayed that he wanted to argue on behalf of the federation, saying he was resigning from his ministerial slot to plead ZAB case in the apex court. He submitted his resignation to the Supreme Court. "I prefer this case to my ministerial portfolio," he said, in reply to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's remarks that he (Awan) couldn't pursue the case as a minister.
At the outset of the hearing, which began on Wednesday, appreciating Awan's gesture, the court asked him to submit his resignation to the authorities concerned instead of the apex court and get his licence revived to qualify for pleading the case. Justice Chaudhry also appreciated Awan's move, terming the gesture 'historic'.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing the presidential reference submitted by the law ministry after it was signed by President Asif Ali Zardari earlier this month. Justice Chaudhry in his opening remarks said Bhutto was held in high esteem not only in the country, but abroad. "I have read those books, which Mr Bhutto wrote in the jail cell," the CJ recalled.
The Chief Justice said that Awan's licence if restored on Wednesday, the matter whether he can argue the case would be taken up on Thursday. He said that judicial aides would be drawn from all the four provinces in the case and their number could go up to 9 or 10. The Chief Justice said that in this courtroom the "history of the military dictator would not be repeated."
"We are taking the issue very seriously and will give it due importance and a larger bench will be constituted," the CJ said as he adjourned the hearing till Thursday. Later, Awan, flanked by around 50 PPP members and supporters, who were present in the court No 1 on the first day of the hearing, told media outside the court that he did not believe in the politics of revenge and there was a need to purge the country of injustice. He said PPP had been struggling for 32 years to bring those involved in the case to book.
"For me, it's a great honour to be the lawyer of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in his retrial [as compared to] holding the slot of a federal minister, because it's the trial of the Century," Awan said. According to him, Benazir Bhutto had once said that the verdict would have been different had he (Awan) contested it.
Awan, who seemed a bit emotional could not stop himself from saying that the ministership was a very small thing and he would have quit even if he had been the prime minister to avail such golden chance to reveal to the world what cruelty was perpetrated upon the Quaid-e-Awam.
"I am very thankful to Almighty Allah, the prime minister, the president and all the party members for choosing me to contest this historical case," he maintained. He said the court would echo with the voice of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto during the forthcoming hearings through his tongue, arguing that 'Shaheed' never dies. Meanwhile, acting president Farooq H Naek has accepted law minister Babar Awan's resignation and appointed him as the lawyer for the Presidential Reference.