Justice for Bhutto

While nothing can undo the injustice Zulfikar Ali Bhutto faced when he was put to death in what has been called a judicial murder by historians and legal observers alike, Wednesday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling might go some way in acknowledging the wounds inflicted on not just the Bhuttos but all of democracy on that fateful day in 1979. The Supreme Court has said that the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not get a fair trial and that due process requirements were not met. This judgment is a result of a presidential reference filed back in April 2011 under Article 186 of the constitution by the then-president Asif Ali Zardari to seek the court’s opinion on revisiting the Bhutto trial. Bhutto was executed on April 4, 1979, following an SC verdict in what the PPP has always called a trumped-up murder case. Initially, Zardari’s reference was taken up by the then-SC’s 11-member larger bench headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which held five hearings of the reference. On December 12, 2023, the reference hearing resumed under a nine-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa following a decision to fix an instant case under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023. It is difficult to not agree with a justifiably emotional PPP Chairman and Bhutto’s grandson Bilawal Bhutto that the court’s verdict is historic and aimed at rectifying past mistakes.

The judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has haunted Pakistan’s judicial system ever since Bhutto was executed after an unfair and farcical trial. The Bhutto family has been waiting for justice for over four decades and this ruling can now give some sense of closure to them. Legal experts have acknowledged that Bhutto’s trial was a travesty of justice and the judiciary of Pakistan needed to address this issue. This was a case and a trial whose ramifications can still be felt across the country. Not only was Pakistan’s political future changed, but society as a whole is still reaping the nightmares brought on by the 11 years of Zia’s rule the country went through after Bhutto’s execution. In this sense, not only does the Bhutto family stand vindicated but so do democrats and political workers in the country – and the many Bhuttoists that still cling on to their deceased leader’s vision of Pakistan.

Over the years, the judiciary has been used as a tool by the powerful quarters. It is time those past sins of commission and omission by the judiciary are at least acknowledged. In this, Wednesday’s ruling becomes even more important – an acknowledgment that the judiciary was used to decide the fate of an elected politician who was the real representative of the people. The record had to be set right. And it is encouraging and commendable that the current Supreme Court found it fit to hold the institution accountable for its past mistakes. Perhaps, this is better articulated by Chief Justice Isa in his ruling: "We must therefore be willing to confront our past missteps and fallibilities with humility, in the spirit of self-accountability, and as a testament to our commitment to ensure that justice must be served with unwavering integrity and fidelity to the law."