ISLAMABAD – Senior consultant to the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, Arif Chaudhry on Friday wrote a letter to the District Magistrate Islamabad seeking certified copy of the statement of Masood Mahmood, an ‘approver’ in the case of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB).
In a one-page letter to the District Magistrate Islamabad, Arif Chaudhry stated that FIR No. 402 was registered against then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on November 11, 1974 under section 302 and 307 of PPC with Police Station Ichhra, Lahore. It has been stated in the letter that the statement of so-called approver and former DG of FSF Masood Mahmood, had been recorded by then Resident Magistrate Islamabad Ghazanfar Zia.
“The President of Pakistan has sent a reference in terms of Article 186 of the Constitution to the Supreme Court, for which the statement of the approver was required to further the ends of justice”, the letter stated. Earlier on April 04, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry fixed April 13 for the hearing on the presidential reference seeking revisiting the death sentence handed down to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The reference was filed in the Supreme Court by President Asif Ali Zardari under its advisory jurisdiction to seek an opinion on revisiting the death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The reference was filed under Article 186 (1 and 2) of the Constitution, which empowers the president to refer any question of public importance to the apex court to seek its opinion on any matter.
The Supreme Court, under constitutional provisions, has the authority to consider the question so referred to it by the president and then report its opinion on the question to the president. A seven-judge Supreme Court bench had upheld by four a Lahore High Court verdict of awarding death sentence to the former prime minister in March 1979 during the military regime of then army chief, Gen Ziaul Haq, who had overthrown the PPP government in July 1977.
The copy of the reference has not been provided to media.
