ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, executed by the military regime of Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979, did not receive a fair trial and due process, the Supreme Court opined unanimously on Wednesday in a much-anticipated review of the high-profile case.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa announced the opinion of a nine-member larger bench of the apex court. It is based on a special case sent in 2011 by then president Asif Ali Zardari to the Supreme Court to revisit his father-in-law Bhutto’s conviction for abetment in a murder case and his eventual hanging on April 4, 1979.
On March 18, 1978, the Lahore HC sentenced Bhutto to death for ordering the assassination of Ahmed Reza Kasuri, a founding member of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Announcing the unanimous opinion, Isa said, “The proceedings of the trial do not meet the requirements of the fundamental right to a fair trial.” But the SC also ruled that the verdict could not be changed as the Constitution and law did not allow so.