Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday formed an 11-member larger bench to hear the presidential reference to reopen the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case from May 2 onwards.
The bench, to be headed by the CJP himself, comprises Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
At the last hearing, the court had requisitioned all the relevant records of the Bhutto case, including the first information report, from the Lahore High Court. The court had appointed 10 senior lawyers from all the provinces, namely Ali Ahmed Kurd, Tariq Mahmood, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, Khalid Anwar, Makhdoom Ali Khan, SM Zafar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Zahoorul Haq and Abdul Latif Afridi as amicus curiae.
The court had also told the attorney general and advocates general of all provinces, and the Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jahangir to assist it.
