Revisiting history: PPP demands judiciary reference on Bhutto’s execution

Says court must classify his execution as judicial murder.

ISLAMABAD:

Last year, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded that the superior judiciary decide the pending presidential reference regarding Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution, and on Saturday, the human rights cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) renewed this demand.

The PPP’s HR cell called for revisiting the former prime minister’s case on the eve of his 34th death anniversary, and demanded that the court classify Bhutto’s execution as a judicial murder.

Bhutto, the architect of the 1973 Constitution and the founder of the PPP, was sentenced to death after what is widely considered a flawed and unfair trial.

“The process of democratisation, the movement towards greater rights and freedoms cannot be complete unless this dark chapter of history is resolved, and it is now up to the courts to redress this historical wrong,” said the PPP’s Dr Nafisa Shah. “No matter how independent and fair the judiciary of Pakistan becomes, the Bhutto trial will forever scar it, unless the courts take it upon themselves to revisit the case, and to declare it a judicial murder,” she added.

In April 2011, President Asif Ali Zardari appealed to the Supreme Court – through a presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution – seeking the court’s opinion on revisiting Bhutto’s murder trial, as well as seeking a revision of the death sentence awarded to him. The court had stopped hearing the case after suspending the licence of Senator Babar Awan, the government’s former counsel in the case.

President Zardari has now appointed Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan as his new counsel in the case.

The court had also appointed 10 amicus curiae (Latin for ‘friend of the court’) on April 21. Some prominent lawyers, including SM Zafar and Aitzaz, were also among the 10 names, while others later disassociated themselves from the list.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2013.