ISLAMABAD: A nine-member bench of SCP headed by CJP Qazi Faez Isa (also comprising 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 Wednesday (6th March, 2024) has anonymously opined (in response to the 2011 presidential reference) that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) did not get a fair trial and it was not accordance with the Constitutional requirement of due process.

It is pertinent to recall here that Founder of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Ex-PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (51) was hanged to death on 4th day of April, 1979 during the Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s regime in Rawalpindi Jail and was buried in family graveyard of Nau Dero.

However, PPP and an enormous number of people all over the world had since been calling the verdict of SCP as a judicial murder.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (the maternal grandson of ZAB) talking to the journalists outside the courtroom called the opinion historic.

Thanking the judges, advocates and amici curiae for hearing and fighting the case Bilawal held that the stain of that decision made it difficult for the people of Pakistan to have faith in the court, and get justice from this court, particularly when a PM did not get justice.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari maintained that the SC’s decision would allow Pakistan to progress.

APP Adds: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday congratulating the leadership and workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said by admitting the mistake in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s trial, the Supreme Court’s opinion on the presidential reference had set a new history and tradition.

The prime minister congratulated Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, President-designate Asif Ali Zardari, PPP leadership and workers for the Supreme Court’s observation that former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did not get a fair trial.

“It is not possible to correct the past mistake but by admitting the serious mistake, a new history and a new tradition have been set,” the prime minister remarked in a statement.

He said that rectification of an injustice of a court by the court was a positive development.

“The unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in the Bhutto reference will help understand the history at the national level through the right perspective.

“The process of national unity and development can be accelerated only by correcting the past mistakes and doing away with the bitterness,” PM maintained.

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