Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday during hearing of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) Reference observed that “.what happened with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was extra-constitutional.”
An 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the presidential reference filed to revisit the death sentence awarded to Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Presidential counsel Babar Awan in his arguments contended that a co-accused could not be awarded death sentence. He pleaded to the court to respond in positive over the Judicial reference. The Chief Justice remarked that the law punishes both, the offender and the accomplices.
Babar Awan said that the co-accused could not be sentenced to death. The Lahore High Court judges which heard the Bhutto case were prejudiced against him. The former chief justice Naseem Shah had confessed the mistake, Awan said. The judges should repent over the injustice against Bhutto, he further said.
