An 11-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ordered Punjab police once again on Wednesday to produce the original file containing the first information report (FIR) and supplementary notes of the investigation officer (IO) of the murder case against former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The court expressed its dissatisfaction with Punjab Advocate General Khawaja Haris Ahmed, who told the court that the provincial police had found Register 9 pertaining to the Bhutto case. However, he said, according to policy, the Punjab police had handed over the original file of the Bhutto case to the Federal Investigation Agency. Expressing dismay over Ahmed’s statement, the chief justice said four files were prepared for each case.
Government’s counsel Dr Babar Awan stated that three separate agencies had carried out investigation of the Bhutto case. Justice Javed Iqbal observed that if the case had been suspended, then it could be reopened. He said the present case was consigned to records because of unavailability of evidence. Awan stated that Bhutto’s trial was not of a regular nature as it was conducted in absentia. He said a special bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) was constituted and the questions were “put in the mouth of judges”.
He said the LHC played the role of summary military trial court as the judges were reporting everything to the chief martial law administrator. He said if the chief justice of the LHC at the time had become a petitioner in one case, he should have recused himself from the bench that heard the murder case against Bhutto. During the hearing, the court repeatedly asked Awan not to become emotional and to argue the case objectively.
The judges said they were not going to brush anything under the carpet.
