Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq on Friday submitted in the Supreme Court (SC) the original record of the murder case registered against former prime minister and founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with the Ichhra Police Station, Lahore in 1974, as well as the investigation report of Justice (r) Shafiur Rehman in the case.
An 11-member larger bench of the SC comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, 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, was hearing a presidential reference filed to revisit Bhutto’s death sentence.
The court told Haq and Punjab Advocate General Khawaja Haris Ahmed to jointly consult their respective governments whether the investigation report of Justice (r) Shafiur Rehman should be made public or not. Appearing on notice, the attorney general produced the record of the murder case registered against Bhutto, which included a copy of the original first information report (FIR) and supplementary notes of the investigation officer (IO) as well as Justice Rehman’s investigation report.
After examining the records, the chief justice noted that according to police records, investigation was conducted from various angles but nothing could be found against Bhutto and finally the case was closed in November 1975. “Prima facie, the record we have seen proved that the Shafiur Rehman Commission that was thoroughly investigating the ZAB case found that since there was no evidence, the case was closed as untraced,” the chief justice said.
“It looks as if everything was done after July 5, 1977,” he added. The court also told the attorney general to submit the record to the registrar office. The government’s counsel Dr Babar Awan submitted that Bhutto’s trial was not conducted fairly and the circumstances at the Lahore High Court were not conducive, and even the lawyers were harassed. He said the due process of law was not adopted and the whole state machinery was diverted against Bhutto.
