PPP submits written reply in Bhutto case to SC
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. PHOTO: FILE
The Pakistan Peoples Party has submitted its written response to the Supreme Court in the presidential reference regarding the death sentence of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari submitted a 108-page written response to the court on Saturday through lawyer Farooq H Naik, which states that Bhutto was awarded the death sentence on a false charge under duress.
References to various books have been given in favour of the position, while in this context, the details of the interview of former chief justice of Pakistan late Naseem Hasan Shah have also been included.
In the written reply, the USB and CD of the interview of former CJP Naseem and the transcript of the interview in English and Urdu have also been submitted.
A nine-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali, will hear the Bhutto presidential reference case on Jan 8.
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The reference was filed on behalf of former president Asif Ali Zardari on April 2, 2011, for an opinion on revisiting the death sentence awarded to the former premier under the Supreme Court’s advisory jurisdiction.
It was filed before the top court under Article 186 (1 and 2) of the Constitution, which empowers the president to refer any question of public importance to the Supreme Court to seek its opinion on an issue.
The reference was last heard by an 11-judge panel, headed by then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in Jan 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 top 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.