Revisiting ZAB murder: SC elicits Kasuri’s opinion on reference

Raza Kasuri had lodged an FIR against Bhutto for the murder of his father.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear the complainant of murder case against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto before delivering an opinion on the presidential reference for revisiting the trial which had led to the hanging of the former premier.

The eleven-judge bench issued a notice to advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri, who had lodged an FIR against Bhutto in Lahore for the murder of his father, Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan, who was killed on November 11, 1974.

The chief justice went on to give the attorney general, advocate generals and lawyers, nominated by the court for assistance in the case, thirty minutes to inform the bench if they agreed upon making the complainant a party to the reference.

Nominated by the court for assistance, former President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, said Bhutto had been taken to the gallows on the basis of the challan (investigation report) the state had submitted to the court and the complainant was not Kasuri but the state itself.

“We opine that a notice can be foregone. Nevertheless, we feel he (Kasuri) should be given a notice to meet the ends of justice,” said Ahsan after the bench re-assembled.

Another court nominee, Abdul Hafiz Prizada argued that the Supreme Court could nullify the verdict on Bhutto’s death sentence by reviewing it in its suo motu jurisdiction.

“You are saying that we should review the matter in our suo motu jurisdiction,” Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani asked Pirzada while summing up his argument. Pirzada replied in the affirmative.

“But first we would have to answer the reference,” the chief justice said, indicating the need for separate proceedings to revisit the Bhutto case.

The reference requires the court to opine whether or not the court could revisit the decades-old erroneous judgment, which has technically and procedurally attained finality.

The chief justice observed that the prime minister, who had advised the president to file the reference, may have to ask the court to invoke its suo motu power for reviewing the judgment. “If we decide on our own, we will be asked day in and day out to take similar reviews,” the chief justice concluded.

Pirzada added that the court could always decide the matter under Article 187 of the Constitution, which empowers the court to do complete justice in any matter.

Asking the court to provide Kasuri with documents pertaining to the reference, the bench adjourned the hearing of the case till January 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2011.