The Pakistan Supreme Court said on Wednesday former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged in 1979 following one of the country’s most controversial legal cases, did not get a fair trial, a verdict widely seen by the ex-premier’s family and political associates as a “correcting of history.”
Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979, in Rawalpindi District Jail, where he had been confined since his conviction on charges of conspiring to murder a political opponent. The charismatic, Western-educated leader who founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973, and later as the country’s ninth prime minister from 1973 to 1977. He was ousted in a military coup by General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq on July 5, 1977, following an election in which Bhutto is widely charged with having rigged the vote.
Legal experts have for years questioned Bhutto’s trial both in the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court, and raised questions on the conduct and procedure of the hearings, as well as on the fact that they took place while Pakistan was under military rule. Analysts argue this is the reason Bhutto’s death penalty judgment has never been cited as a precedent in any subsequent case in Pakistan’s judicial history.
“The proceedings of the trial by the Lahore High Court and of the appeal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan do not meet the requirements of the fundamental right to a fair trial and due process enshrined in Articles 4 and 9 of the constitution,” the chief justice said while announcing the unanimous opinion of the court under its advisory jurisdiction.
The guilty verdict against Bhutto is still considered one of the most controversial milestones in Pakistan’s history. His family and political supporters allege the judges came under pressure from Zia to sentence Bhutto to death.
Before his hanging, Bhutto was first declared guilty in 1978 by the Lahore High Court. His appeal in the Supreme Court was then dismissed with a 4-3 verdict.
The decision to hang Bhutto was made by General Zia despite a flood of petitions for executive clemency from dozens of world leaders, including US President Jimmy Carter, Russia’s Leonid I. Brezhnev, Chinese PM Hua Guofeng and Pope John Paul II, besides thousands of Bhutto’s Pakistani supporters.
“CORRECTION OF HISTORY“
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s son-in-law, filed a presidential reference in 2011 to review the 44-year-old death sentence. Only six hearings were conducted, the last of them in November 2012. A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court began rehearing the reference last December.
Salahuddin Ahmed, a legal expert and president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, cautioned that the Supreme Court could only offer an advisory opinion in response to the presidential reference but not set aside the earlier verdict.
“It may, however, opine that the earlier verdict suffered on account of bias of one or more judges,” he explained. “If so, it will not automatically set aside the earlier verdict but it will certainly give judicial acknowledgment to the widespread public and historical opinion that the Bhutto trial and execution was flawed and orchestrated by General Zia, the then military dictator.”
“In my view, acknowledging and correcting the past judicial mistakes is important to correct the course going forward,” Ahmed added.
“The decision in the Bhutto murder trial cannot be reversed, but in Pakistan’s political history, it will be proven that at another time, Pakistan’s judiciary supported anti-democratic forces,” academic and historian Dr. Riaz Ahmed Sheikh told Arab News a day before the SC verdict in the case.
“It also proves how crucial a role Pakistan’s judiciary has played in derailing democracy in Pakistan.”
“There’s a lesson here for the judiciary that while correcting the past mistakes, it should try not to repeat them again,” Saqib Bashir, a senior court reporter in Islamabad, added.
Speaking to Arab News, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sherry Rehman called for a just verdict to rectify the past decision.
“A just decision would signify a turning point, acknowledging and rectifying the past miscarriages of justice linked to Bhutto’s murder, which has significantly impacted the course of Pakistan’s political history,” she said. “We are eagerly anticipating a correction of history.”
Let it be remembered, that if corrections are to be made then there will be a line up of such trajedies, from East Pakistan till today.
