Daily Times

Ahead of the hearing on a presidential reference seeking to revisit the death sentence awarded to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said the party expected “justice” to be served.

A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court will commence on Tuesday (Dec 12) a long-pending presidential reference seeking to revisit the 1979 controversial death sentence awarded to the PPP founder. The reference was filed on behalf of former president Asif Ali Zardari on April 2, 2011, to seek an opinion on revisiting the death sentence awarded to the former premier under the Supreme Court’s advisory jurisdiction. Addressing a workers’ convention in Kohat, Bilawal noted that the reference had finally been fixed for hearing.

“We had this hope from Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa that he would avail the opportunity to wash the blood off from his institutions and his court that was […] involved and an enabler in this tragedy. “He should correct the constitutional and legal mistakes which were made [by the apex court],” he said. Bilawal said he did not expect the court to merely give a verdict in the case since “the whole of Pakistan knows that [Bhutto] was innocent”. He said the court would also have to point out those involved as well as the abettors, from ex-military dictator Ziaul Haq to the judges, lawyers and politicians involved.

“We expect justice,” Bilawal said. He went on to say that justice also needed to be done with history by telling the nation about the “conspiracy” that resulted in Bhutto’s hanging. Bilawal said if the court addressed the “serious historic event” then it would give hope to the people and raise the trust in the judiciary. During his address, Bilawal also talked about the upcoming general elections and said political parties were contesting the polls only to solve their “personal problems”. “I am fighting this election to solve your problems,” he added. “If someone is fighting elections it is so that that he can get out of prison while the other is contesting elections to save himself from prison,” he said. Bilawal also said the PPP was advised to not kick off its conventions from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the security threats. “I said PPP workers are not ones to fear or hide and they stand with the party and I will go to them in this difficult time,” he added.

Meanwhile, PPP Information Secretary Faisal Kareem Kundi said the party was calling on the top court to live stream the proceedings so that the whole country as well as the world could Bhutto getting justice. In a video message, Kundi said Bilawal had already filed an application in the apex court to make him a party in the case.