Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry questioned on Monday the reopening of a case against former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977 when no evidence was found against him in 1975.
The CJP was heading an 11-member larger bench of the Supreme Court (SC) hearing a presidential reference to revisit the death sentence of the former premier. Dr Babar Awan, representing the government in the reference, submitted that in the democratic era the judiciary was independent, however in 1977 there was martial law in the country and the judiciary was not independent.
1977, he said, was an era of a new world order, in which the rise of the Muslim nation was disappointing for many powers, especially since a Muslim state was going to become a nuclear power. He said Bhutto had told the trial court that he was being punished for making the country a nuclear power and had said “it was not a trial of a murder, but a trial was being murdered”.
He said Bhutto’s trial was initiated at a time when the constitution was suspended. Referring to a Lahore High Court (LHC) order passed on September 13, 1977 transferring the trial of Bhutto, the counsel stated that Maulvi Mushtaq Ahmed, acting chief justice of the LHC at the time, had transferred the trial to a five-member bench constituted and headed by him without mentioning any application filed for the transfer. He said the order for the transfer of the case had not been made part of the record.
To a court query, he said the investigation of the case was closed on October 1, 1975, only to be reopened in 1977. He said the investigation was not carried out by the police. “This is the only case transferred to the Lahore High Court directly by the judges without hearing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his lawyers,” Awan said. He said a first information report (FIR) against Bhutto was registered in 1974, whereas an incomplete challan was presented in 1977. He said during the dormancy of the FIR, no investigation was carried out.
“We have to see how the FIR registered in 1974 was activated in 1977,” the court stated. The CJP noted that when martial law was imposed on July 5, 1977, the investigation of the case was started. He said everyone present in the courtroom should be aware of the facts of the case. “We have to review every question of the reference,” he added.
