Bilawal Bhutto urges SC to allow live-streaming of ZAB reference hearing

PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has filed an application in the Supreme Court urging live telecast of the court proceedings regarding hearing on a presidential reference seeking to revisit the death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

A nine-member larger bench of the apex court will commence on Tuesday (December 12-tomorrow) a long-pending presidential reference seeking to revisit the 1979 controversial death sentence awarded to the PPP founder.

The reference was filed on behalf of former president Asif Ali Zardari on April 2, 2011, to seek an opinion on revisiting the death sentence awarded to the former premier under the Supreme Court’s advisory jurisdiction.

Yesterday, PPP Information Secretary Faisal Kareem Kundi had said that the party was calling on the top court to live stream the proceedings so that the whole country as well as the world could see Bhutto getting justice.

Bilawal’s plea for live streaming of the court proceedings was filed on his behalf by Farooq H Naek in the Supreme Court on Monday, praying the court to allow live-streaming keeping in the view the requirements of justice.

Ahead of the hearing on the presidential reference, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said the party expected “justice” to be served. Addressing a workers’ convention in Kohat, Bilawal noted that the reference had finally been fixed for hearing. “We had this hope from Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa that he would avail the opportunity to wash the blood off from his institutions and his court that was involved and an enabler in this tragedy.

“He should correct the constitutional and legal mistakes which were made by the apex court,” he said.

Bilawal said he did not expect the court to merely give a verdict in the case since “the whole of Pakistan knows that Bhutto was innocent”. He said the court would also have to point out those involved as well as the abettors, from ex-military dictator Ziaul Haq to the judges, lawyers and politicians involved.

“We expect justice,” Bilawal said. He went on to say that justice also needed to be done with history by telling the nation about the “conspiracy” that resulted in Bhutto’s hanging.

Asif Zardari had moved the Supreme Court under Article 186(1) and (2) of the Constitution, which empowers the president to refer any question of public importance to the apex court for its opinion.

Headed by then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, an 11-judge bench held the reference’s last hearing in January 2012.

In March 1978, a four-member bench of Lahore High Court had awarded the death sentence to Bhutto, which was later challenged in the Supreme Court.

In a four to three split verdict, a seven-judge SC had bench upheld the sentence during the military regime of the then-army chief Gen Ziaul Haq in March 1979.

Reporter Amanat Gishkori