Bilawal moves SC for live telecast of ZAB reference hearing

ISLAMAABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari requested the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday to conduct live broadcast of hearing of presidential reference, filed for revisiting the murder case of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He filed an application through senior lawyer Farooq H. Naek under Order XXXIII, Rule 6 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980, for permission for live broadcast of hearing of the presidential reference in the interest of justice.

A nine-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, will take up today (Tuesday) the reference, filed for revisiting the murder case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Other members of the larger bench include Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari had approached the apex court on April 2, 2011through a presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution of Pakistan to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The last hearing of the reference was held on November 11, 2022.

Earlier an eleven-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had held five hearings in the presidential reference.

In his application, Bilawal submitted that throughout his life, Zulfikar Bhutto wanted to uphold the rule of law, adding that the spirit of justice that he so admired, was nowhere to be found when he himself was ‘adorned’ with the noose of injustice.

He submitted that Zulfikar Bhutto was hanged, but his ideology stayed, adding that for years to come, his family had to deal with the case reported as PLD 1979 SC 38 and 53.

“It is a blot not just on the history of the family but a wretched stain on the entire judicial system of Pakistan and remains so till date,” Bilawal submitted, adding that in order to remove the stain and correct the wrong in history he preferred the instant reference to bring on record the reality of life of his grandfather.

He requested the apex court that the hearing of the case should go live/on air, so that whole Pakistan could hear it and this would be transparent for everyone.

Meanwhile, former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said on Monday fixing of the presidential reference to seek an opinion on the judgment in trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) by the Supreme Court was an opportunity to correct a historic wrong.

“The judicial murder of Shaheed Bhutto is seeded in a conspiracy between Pakistan’s ruling elite, internal reactionaries and international imperialist powers and this reference will also expose the collaborators within the ruling elite,” he said in a statement.

Senator Rabbani said it was for students of history to sift the similarities of the coup in 1953 against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran and Zia’s military takeover. He said the ‘judicial murder’ was an internal necessity for the ruling elite to stem the slogan of “All Power to the People”, the establishment of a federal, democratic, parliamentary system, the socialist economic reforms, the establishment of a liberal, progressive democratic society, the strengthening of student and trade unions as also civil society, the supremacy of Parliament leading to civilian ascendancy in affairs of governance, the role of each institution confined to its limits prescribed in the Constitution, 1973, the rule of law with rule by law, the drive against capitalism and cartels and independent foreign policy; these are the first amongst others.

Former chairman Senate said for the international imperialist powers, Pakistan’s breaking the shackles of being a client state by putting into place the nuclear programme, withdrawing from Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) and Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO), the Islamic heads of state conference, the use of oil as tool in diplomacy, development of strategic partnership with China, promoting the cause of the Third World Movement and support to Palestinian and Kashmiri peoples.