ISLAMABAD – The reference, filed in the Supreme Court by President Asif Ali Zardari on revisiting the death sentence awarded to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is the 10th one submitted before the apex court in Pakistan’s history.
The last two references were filed by Musharraf against the Hasba Bill (2005-06).
Farooq Leghari had filed a reference in 1996 to determine whether the president could appoint judges in the superior courts without the prime minister’s advice. The apex court had held that the president was bound to follow the advice of the prime minister on the appointment of judges.
Farooq Leghari had also filed a reference through Shahid Hamid about the appointment of judges, but later withdrew it when the then attorney general, Yahya Bakhtiar, objected that he had been bypassed. Governor General Ghulam Muhammad was the first to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction to seek opinion from the highest judicial forum in 1955 on the affairs of the then government.
He had filed another reference seeking the court’s opinion whether the then provincial assembly was rightly dissolved or not. In 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had filed a reference seeking the apex court’s opinion whether or not to recognise Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan.
Former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had filed two references in 1989. The first was about the utilisation of federal and provincial consolidated funds after the lapse of 120 days. The second asked whether the president or the prime minister was competent to appoint the judges in the superior judiciary.
