Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday requested the Supreme Court to live telecast the hearing of a presidential reference revisiting the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto murder case.
A nine-member larger bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa will take up the matter today (Tuesday).
“The applicant wants the hearing of this case to be live or on air," the application filed by Bilawal stated.
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 to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the PPP founder.
The last hearing of the reference took place on November 11, 2012.
Case history
Zulfikar, who took over as president of Pakistan immediately after the fall of Dhaka in December 1971, and later became the prime minister after the 1973 Constitution, was removed from the government through martial law imposed on July 5, 1977, led by late General Ziaul Haq.
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On Sept 3, he was arrested in the case of the March 1974 murder of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan Kasuri. He was released 10 days later after a court found the charges against him "contradictory and incomplete".
He was rearrested on the same charges and arraigned before the Lahore High Court (LHC).
On March 18, 1978, Zulfikar was declared guilty of the murder and was sentenced to death.
The decision was challenged in the Supreme Court and on Feb 6, 1979, the Supreme Court voted 4-3 to issue a guilty verdict and upheld the high court decision.
On March 24, 1979, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and Gen Zia upheld the death sentence.
Zulfikar was hanged at the Rawalpindi Central Jail on April 4, 1979, and was buried at his family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Baksh.
On April 2, 2011, 32 years after Zulfikar's trial and execution, the PPP, then the ruling party, filed a reference for reopening of his trial.
The apex court judgment on the hanging of Zulfikar has never been referred to as a precedent by the judges in any case.
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