PAKISTAN TODAY SPECIAL – While there is generally political consensus across Pakistan now, 32 years after former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) was sent to the gallows, that the verdict amounted to “judicial murder”, the politicians and mainstream newspapers of the time had appreciated the way his trial was conducted, terming the judicial system in Pakistan “independent and impartial”.
Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979, and the next day, daily Jang and daily Nawa-e-Waqt had not only prominently displayed the comments of politicians welcoming the execution of the Supreme Court judgement but also wrote editorials in favour of the apex court, whose decision, the editors of these newspapers believed, had established the supremacy of law and judiciary in Pakistan.
In its April 5, 1979 editorial, daily Jang wrote that ZAB’s hanging was a decidedly admonitory incident in history. “This head of the government of Pakistan, who commanded authority, ended up in the gallows. History is replete with such harrowing incidents but the way the Divine Power had made an admonitory example out of Shaikh Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Raza Shah Pehlvi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not common. Bhutto’s case was, however, different from the other two. He was removed from power on political grounds, arrested for committing a moral crime and was produced before the court,” the editorial reads.
The editorial also referred to the hanging of Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes, who was tried in a military court, and said that from Bhutto’s ouster to his hanging, General Zia-ul-Haq did not use any method that negated the spirit of the constitution, law and justice. The newspaper wrote that numerous cases had been registered against Bhutto for the misuse of authority and various other irregularities, but he was tried for the murder of Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan, which had taken place during his rule. Daily Nawa-e-Waqt, in its April 5, 1979 editorial, wrote that Bhutto had been hanged for conspiring to kill one of his political rivals and while his party and family filed mercy petitions, he did not opt for this because he refused to have committed the act.
But the newspaper appreciated the way the legal process was conducted. In support of the argument, the newspaper quoted Bhutto as expressing his satisfaction. The editorial did not even slightly give an impression that in ZAB’s case justice was bulldozed and the former prime minister was hanged without having been provided with all facilities available to a murder suspect under the law. The newspaper appreciated the way the legal process was completed and wrote that the trial proved to the world that the judicial system in Pakistan was impartial, as all – no matter how big and powerful they were – were treated equally.
It further noted very little progress being made in reforms in the electricity sector and commodity operations, which were urgently needed to eliminate financial losses that impose a burden on public finances and posed a threat to macroeconomic stability.The legislation needed to strengthen bank supervision and central bank autonomy had not been enacted, strengthening of the social safety net was still not complete, and the reform of petroleum pricing had been partially reversed in the recent months. It says to make progress, economic reforms needed to be reinvigorated.
There was a need to strengthen public finances and improve financial intermediation, and to raise economic confidence to stimulate higher savings, investment, growth and employment. Stronger public finances were needed to allow for higher spending on development and poverty reduction, and to increase much-needed social outlays over the medium term. Economic reforms would also mobilise financial support from external donors and spur greater private capital inflows. IMF had already informed the government that the remaining two tranches of $3.4 billion of the suspended programme would only be released if measure to broaden and tax all sectors were implemented with elimination of power sector subsidies and curtailing the fiscal deficit.
After the issuance of the programme note, Pakistan would have a difficult time to convince fund authorities on a new programme. About the progress of the programme, it said Pakistan’s economy had initially made progress toward stabilisation under the program. Prior to the floods, modest signs of recovery in manufacturing, mainly in the textile sector and exports suggested that the Pakistani economy was regaining momentum. However, the budget deficit increased, reaching 6.3 percent of GDP in last year and inflation had been on the rise, recording 13 percent in March 2011.
The external position had strengthened, the exchange rate had been stable, and the current account deficit had narrowed considerably, helped by lower import growth, higher exports, and a robust increase in workers’ remittances. Foreign currency reserves had increased from $3.3 billion in November 2008 before the IMF programme approval to over $14 billion at present.
