ISLAMABAD: A larger bench of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday adjourned hearing till month of January on a presidential reference pertaining to Zulifqar Ali Bhutto case. The SC said more amicus curiae have been appointed in this matter and they would be served notices for their consents. 

During the course of proceeding, the chief justice questioned that what the president wanted from us in the reference. He asked that how many presidents came after Asif Ali Zardari.

Attorney General of Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan said that after Mr. Zardari two more presidents came. He said that he had no instructions from the federal government to withdraw the reference. The chief justice remarked that this reference was still under authority of this court as no any president withdrew this. The court said that the reference was heard in 2012 last time and after that no hearing was done.

Bilawal Bhutto’s lawyer Farooq H. Naek said that the reference had been accepted for hearing. He said that former chief justice Naseem Hassan Shah had admitted in an interview that there was pressure on them. Naek said that they had also moved an application in 2018 for hearing on the reference. In its order pertaining to the hearing, Justice (reted) Manzoor Malik is also requested to become amicus curiae in this reference. It decided to appoint Khawaja Haris, Khalid Javed Khan, Salahuddin, Zahid Ibrahim and Yasir Qureshi as amicus curiae.

The court said that currently an oldest presidential reference was before it and it was necessary to take decision on it.   It said that Farooq H. Naek has filed application on behalf of Bilawal Bhutto to become respondent in the case. The lawyer told the court that only one daughter of Zulifqar Ali Bhutto is alive.

The order said that the court was told that there were eight grandsons and granddaughters of Mr. Bhutto. Anyone from the heirs could hire a lawyer if want. It further said that Bilwal Bhutto has given application for live broadcasting of the hearing.

During hearing, Pakistan People Party objected on the names of Faisal Sadiq and Salman Safdar Advocate for amicus curiae while Ahmad Raza Qasoori opposed the name of Raza Rabbani. The court also sought the complete transcript of the interviews of former chief justice Naseem Hassan Shah and Justice Durab Patel regarding the sentence of Zulifqar Ali Bhutto. The further hearing was adjourned after the winter vacations of the court.

A nine member larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yayha Afridi, Justice Amin ud Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali heard the reference. The proceeding of the reference was broadcasted live on SC’s website and YouTube channel.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 13 2023

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