I differ from your recent editorial about the re-opening of case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) in which you said to forget let the bygones be bygones and emphasise on the case of Benazir instead. In Bangladesh, the Prime Minister Ms Hasina Wajid after 35 years punished the killers of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman by hanging them to death.
The remarks of Justice (retd) Nasim Hassan Shah of Supreme Court of Pakistan about the decision on the fate of Zulfikar Ali Bhuttos life read like this (he said this in a TV interview on a private TV channel): Had I liked, the life of ZAB would have been saved but the advocate of ZAB Yahya Bakhtiar had made us annoyed.
His comments clearly show that the verdict against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not on merit but only under his personal sentiments. Further, there were frequent reports by independent international media that the dictator General Ziaul-Haq had pressurised the judges to get verdict against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Since the verdict of the Supreme Court judges was given on 4-3 basis, the confession of Justice Nasim is extremely important.
The confession of Justice Nasim Shah has totally changed the case by giving it a new aspect. Therefore, the reference sent by President Asif Zardari is correct because the judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had put the future of the country in doldrums. It was not Bhutto who was hanged but it was Pakistan itself who was hanged on April 04, 1979.
MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL
Karachi
