The Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday constituted a three-member committee to decide on the live telecast of the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto reference filed by former president Asif Ali Zardari in 2011. The committee will decide whether the proceedings should be telecast live. The committee will present its report to the chief justice of Pakistan on December 11. It is pertinent to mention here that a nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court will take up a long-pending presidential reference seeking to revisit the 1979 controversial death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on December 12. Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, the larger bench will consist of 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 April 2, 2011, then-president Asif Ali Zardari approached the apex court through a presidential reference to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was handed a death sentence during former military ruler General (retired) Ziaul Haq’s regime. The first elected prime minister of the country was charged with the murder of a political rival Nawab Mohammed Ahmed Qasuri and a trial took place. Amid petitions and appeals of clemency, and mercy from several Heads of States, Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979. The Pakistan People’s Party has been pleading to declare the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as ‘judicial murder’.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)