SC forms larger bench to hear Zulfikar Ali Bhutto murder reference on Dec 12

A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will take up the presidential reference regarding revisiting former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's murder case judgement on December 12, reported 24NewsHD TV channel Thursday.

According to Supreme Court Registrar Jazeela Aslam, the members of the bench included Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminud Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali.

On April 2, 2011, then-president Asif Ali Zardari approached the apex court through a presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution of Pakistan to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder.

The last hearing of the reference took place on November 11, 2012.

Babar Awan, who has now joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had earlier appeared as the federal government’s counsel in the case and had given lengthy arguments. However, on January 17, 2012, Awan’s law practice licence was suspended for criticising the court’s order in the Memogate case.

In the last hearing, PPP’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan could not appear because he had travelled to Karachi to attend the funeral of the late Iqbal Haider, a party stalwart and a senior advocate of the apex court. Accepting the five preliminary questions of law regarding revising the case, the apex court on April 21, 2011, nominated several legal experts as ‘amicus curiae’ or friends of the court, to assist it over the issue. A few of the amici have now passed away.

On January 2, 2012, the Supreme Court also issued notice to Ahmed Raza Kasuri, the man who had lodged the first information report (FIR) against the PPP founder. Kasuri, in his reply, had opposed the reopening of the case arguing that the president was an “interested party”.

In the reference, then President Asif Ali Zardari sought the Supreme Court's opinion on five questions.

The Presidential Reference on former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Bhutto was based on these five questions:

Was Zulfiqar Bhutto's murder trial according to the basic human rights listed in the constitution?

Will the Supreme Court's decision to hang Zulfiqar Bhutto be applied as a judicial precedent under Article 189 to the Supreme Court and all High Courts? If not, what will be the consequences of this decision?

Was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto sentenced to death a fair decision? Was the decision to sentence Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to death not biased?

Is the death sentence given to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto correct in the light of Quranic injunctions?

Was the evidence given against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the statements of the witnesses sufficient to convict him?

Reporter: Amanat Gishkori