SC to hear reference against Zulfikar Bhutto’s death sentence on Dec 12

ISLAMABAD: A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court will take up a long-pending presidential reference seeking to revisit the 1979 controversial death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on December 12, ARY News reported on Friday.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, the larger bench will consist of Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali.

On April 2, 2011, then-president Asif Ali Zardari approached the apex court through a presidential reference to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was handed a death sentence during former military ruler General (retired) Ziaul Haq’s regime.

The first elected prime minister of the country was charged with the murder of a political rival Nawab Mohammed Ahmed Qasuri and a trial took place.

Amid petitions and appeals of clemency, and mercy from several Heads of States, Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979.

The Pakistan People’s Party has been pleading to declare the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as ‘judicial murder’.