CJP Isa-led larger member bench to hear reference filed by former president Asif Ali Zardari
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is poised to conduct a pivotal hearing on the 12-year-old reference regarding the contentious death sentence handed to PPP founder and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1978.
The nine-member larger bench, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, is scheduled to convene at 11:30 pm today. This landmark event will be broadcast live, accessible through the official website and YouTube channel of the Supreme Court, marking a historic move towards transparency in this significant legal proceeding.
The decision to fix the instant case was made under Section 2(1) of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, by a three-member committee comprising CJP Isa, Justice Masood and Justice Ahsan.
The top court had formed a two-judge panel — comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar — to decide on the live telecast of the reference.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari, on April 2, 2011, had approached the apex court through a presidential reference under Article 186 of the Constitution to seek its opinion on revisiting the trial of the PPP founder.
Previously, an 11-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had conducted five hearings on the presidential reference — whose last hearing was held on November 11, 2022.
PPP seeks live telecast
Ahead of the crucial hearing, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari Monday moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan seeking a live broadcast of the reference.
Bilawal, in his civil miscellaneous application, had urged the court to allow the live telecast of the hearing “so that the whole of Pakistan could hear it”.
The PPP chairman had also voiced his expectation from the chief justice to “rectify constitutional mistakes”.
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“The whole nation knows Quaid-e-Awaam was innocent […] The nation has to be informed who were the facilitators behind [Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s] murder,” Bilawal said during a political gathering in Kohat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Sunday.
“We hope that justice would be done with the history,” he added.
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