An application has been filed in the Supreme Court Lahore registry seeking dismissal of presidential reference for reopening of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case.
Petitioner Allah Baksh Gondal filed the application with the SC in pending presidential reference, through his counsel AK Dogar.
The petitioner submitted that the reference filed by the President under Article 186 of the Constitution was not maintainable and the SC has no jurisdiction to deliver an opinion on the issue.
He submitted that the judgment in the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case was a judicial verdict handed down in exercise of the adjudicatory power of this court. He said any opinion rendered by the Supreme Court in exercise of its advisory jurisdiction cannot over-ride the judgment. He said any opinion given by the SC would not be binding.
He pointed out that five questions of law referred by president to apex court could have been taken up in review petition but Bhutto had filed a review petition which was dismissed on March 24, 1979. And a second review is not permitted under the law, the said.
He said President Asif Ali Zardari is also holder of office of head of Pakistan People Party. So, the reference is a reference by party chief and not by president of Pakistan.
He submitted that historically Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a highly controversial figure and his sentence was welcomed by a large cross-section of society in Pakistan and even Babar Awan, the counsel for the president’s reference, distributed sweets among lawyers in Rawalpindi.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2011.
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