Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the live-streaming of proceedings on a presidential reference filed to revisit the controversial death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The reference, filed on behalf of then-president Asif Ali Zardari in 2011, is to be taken up by a nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court tomorrow (Dec. 12). Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, the bench would comprise Justices Sardar Tariq Masood, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Yahya Afridi, Aminud Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Musarrat Hilali.
Submitted through lawyer Farooq H. Naek, Bhutto-Zardari’s pretition requests the “live/on-air” broadcast of the proceedings to allow the entire country to witness it. “The reference was filed by the then president of Pakistan, namely Asif Ali Zardari, who is the father of the present applicant, hence, the applicant is the son of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party and a great leader of unprecedented scale, caliber, and character,” reads the plea.
Describing Bhutto as a man who continues to live in the hearts of the masses, it states that he had always desired to uphold the rule of law. “His motto of ‘roti, kapra, and makan’ was a testament to his yearning that every man gets his fair due. It was a loud cry echoing the chords of justice, that ‘let justice be done though the heavens may fall’,” it added.
“This passion of the applicant’s grandfather, however, did not derail the irony that was to befall him. The spirit of justice that he so admired, was nowhere to be found when he himself was adorned with the noose of injustice,” it said, noting he was “charged, convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, sentenced and executed” in the “greatest miscarriage of justice that was ever to befall this country.”
Noting the death sentence remained a “wretched stain” on the entire judicial system of Pakistan, the plea said that to remove this and correct a historical wrong, the applicant wished for the reference to be broadcast live “so that the whole Pakistan can hear it and this would be transparent for everyone.” It called for the public to be apprised of all the individuals responsible, including judges, facilitators and lawyers. Seeking permission for the live broadcast, it added: “This would meet the ends of justice.”
A day earlier, addressing a PPP workers’ convention in Kohat, Bhutto-Zardari had said he hoped the CJP would right a historical wrong by ensuring justice in the case. Describing the execution of his grandfather as an “illegal hanging,” he said it was a “big challenge” for the judiciary to recover its image by correcting the flaws of the apex court of the time.