Islamabad, Feb 20 (PTI) Pakistan’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Tuesday said the case about the controversial hanging of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto could be an opportunity for the Supreme Court and the country’s armed forces to rectify their past mistakes and restore their reputation.
Chief Justice Isa made the remarks during the hearing of the case by a nine-member larger bench of the apex court headed by him.
It is based on a special case sent in 2011 by then president Asif Ali Zardari to the Supreme Court to revisit his father-in-law Bhutto’s conviction for abetment in a murder case and his eventual hanging in 1979.
“Isn’t this an opportunity for both institutions to get rid of the accusations hurled against them,” the top judge said during the hearing of a presidential reference related to the death sentence given to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder.
The execution of Bhutto, 51, was carried out after a seven-member Supreme Court upheld the conviction, which many believe was done under coercion exercised by the then-military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq, who had toppled Bhutto’s government in 1977.
Bhutto’s supporters, who later termed his hanging as a “judicial murder”, accused the military ruler and the apex court of colluding to hang an elected prime minister on trumped-up charges. They demanded the top court to undo the unjust treatment meted out to Bhutto.
On April 2, 2011, Zardari approached the top court through a presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the PPP party founder.
Bhutto’s grandson, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and amicus curiae with expertise in criminal and constitutional sides attended Tuesday’s hearing, Geo News reported.
The Supreme Court also decided to hear the heirs of the late PPP founder and complainant Ahmad Raza Kasuri in the presidential reference.
Isa directed all respondents to keep their arguments short and said that the top court wanted to conclude the case hearing before the retirement of a judge part of the larger bench.
Amicus Curiae Makhdoom Ali Khan told the bench that the interviews of three former judges were on record to prove the biases of the judges who gave capital punishment to Bhutto.
He said former judge Qaiser Rashid Khan had said that “even a cat cannot be awarded death penalty based on the evidence” present in the case.
Khan also said that the court can announce the verdict in the Bhutto case under Article 187.
During the hearing, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that the court could not examine the merit of the case since the verdict had already been announced. However, the court can look into how the former prime minister was sentenced to death, he said.
“If the court has to ascertain whether the judges announced the verdict under duress, then what would be the evidence [to back the claim],” he said.
The hearing of the case was adjourned till February 26.
In its written order of the proceedings, the Supreme Court said amicus curiae Khalid Javed Khan has submitted his response to the court, while the PPP chief’s counsel Farooq H Naek, Raza Rabbani and Zahid Ibrahim will present their arguments after amicus curiae.
Last year in December, the larger bench, while hearing the matter, had appointed amicus curiae with expertise on the criminal and constitutional sides, seeking their assistance, particularly on the matter of maintainability of the instant reference, pending with the court for 11 years, the report said. PTI SH GRS GRS GRS
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