The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Tuesday allowed the live telecast of presidential reference on revisiting the death sentence awarded to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. According to a communique issued by the top court on Tuesday, the hearing of the Bhutto reference will be broadcast live on state-run PTV. A nine-member larger apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Aminud Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Justice Musarrat Hilali is expected to take up the reference at 11.30pm today (Tuesday).

The move came after the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has moved the Supreme Court (SC) for live telecast of a hearing on a presidential reference against former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s death sentence. The plea was moved by the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, stating the narrative of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is still alive despite awarding him a death sentence in 1979. 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 People’s 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.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)