The Supreme Court told the government’s counsel Dr Babar Awan on Wednesday to assist it in questions of law in the presidential reference to revisit the verdict of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case, through which it could derive powers under Article 186, enabling it to give an opinion on the trial.
An 11-member larger bench of the Supreme Court 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 the presidential reference, filed under Article 186 of the constitution.
During the hearing, the chief justice told Awan that the jurisdiction exercised by the apex court in the case of the presidential reference of 2007 in Hisba Act and the case of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, was quite different from the presidential reference for the Bhutto case. The court also asked Awan to get the records of the five cases registered against Bhutto in 1978, as they might help the court give its opinion in the current case.
The court said it would be a great success on Awan’s part if he found the records of these five cases. To a court query, Awan said neither parliament nor anybody else could give its verdict over the issue except the judiciary, which had already given verdicts.
To another query, Awan said the petitioners did not want setting aside of judicial verdicts over the issue, adding that the president had already mentioned in the reference that they did not want vengeance against anyone.
The chief justice also said that a law for those who were tried during the 1978 and 2000-2007 periods of martial law should also be made. Awan said the court could revisit the Bhutto case under Article 4, which held that an individual should be treated in accordance with law, which was an inalienable right of every individual. He said the “rehearsal” of the Bhutto trial was staged at the Lahore High Court (LHC), as the LHC chief justice of the time Maulvi Mushtaq had not allowed the lower court to hear the case and fixed it before a bench of his own choosing.
Awan stated that Bhutto had clearly mentioned that he received a threat from Henry Kissinger that he would be made “a horrible example” after he signed a nuclear pact with France. He said when Bhutto appeared in the Supreme Court, he had said he would “not lie, as people are saying that I am going to my God”. He said Bhutto’s statement continued for four days, spanning 12 hours.
To a court query, Awan said that under Article 9, no person could be deprived of their liberty and life and it would be another question of law in the Bhutto case.
Later the hearing was adjourned till today (Thursday).
