The Supreme Court of Pakistan issued its reserved opinion on Wednesday regarding the trial, sentence, and execution of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, stating that he did not receive a “fair trial.”
A nine-member bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, reserved its opinion on the 2011 presidential reference seeking to revisit the sentence and execution of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder and former premier Bhutto.
The bench, which includes 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, announced its short order.
“Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not receive a fair trial, and it was not in accordance with the Constitutional requirement of due process,” stated CJP Isa while announcing the verdict.
Bhutto was hanged to death on April 4, 1979, following a verdict of the Supreme Court in a murder case that his party described as a “judicial murder.”
Following the filing of a presidential reference, an 11-member larger bench of the apex court, led by former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, held five hearings in the presidential reference.
The current chief justice resumed the hearing on December 12 after a decision to expedite the case under the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, made by a three-member committee comprising CJP Isa, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
