ISLAMABAD, Dec 12: The government and the judiciary may be on a 'collision course', according to some analysts, but the mood was congenial in Courtroom One on Monday as the Supreme Court heard the presidential reference on the trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
After reaching a consensus, an 11-judge bench decided to summon, in the interest of justice, Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri, whose complaint had implicated Mr Bhutto in the conspiracy to kill his father, Nawab Mohammad Ahmed Khan.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing of presidential reference under its advisory jurisdiction to revisit the 1979 murder trial of the PPP founder. In a four to three split verdict, a seven-judge Supreme Court bench had upheld the Lahore High Court's verdict of awarding death sentence to the former prime minister in March 1979 during the regime of then army chief Gen Ziaul Haq, who had overthrown the PPP government in July 1977.
Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, one of ten amici curiae assisting the court in the case, requested the bench to issue a notice to Ahmed Raza Kasuri. However, he said, the complainant had already forgone his right to become part of the proceedings.
On Nov 11, 1974, an FIR was lodged after the assassination of Nawab Mohammad Ahmed Khan implicating Mr Bhutto in the conspiracy to murder his political opponent Ahmad Raza Kasuri. The FIR was lodged at the Ichara Police Station in Lahore under Sections 120-B, 302, 109 and 301 and 307 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The complaint helped revive different criminal cases against Mr Bhutto after the imposition of martial law on July 5, 1977. The private complaint moved on behalf of Mr Kasuri remained pending with the additional sessions judge Lahore. It was later transferred to the LHC bench for hearing in Aug 1977.
The Supreme Court asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, amici curiae, advocates general of the four provinces and Dr Babar Awan, counsel for the referring authority (President Zardari), to sit together and decide if it was necessary to call the complainant.
The court even offered to postpone the hearing till Tuesday so that they could discuss the issue and come up with an answer.
However, when the court reassembled after a tea break, Aitzaz Ahsan informed the court that they were in favour of issuing notice to Ahmed Raza Kasuri so that no grievance or objection could be taken by him at a later stage. “We want it to be on record that although he (Mr Kasuri) has forgone his right, he should not be left out of the arguments or discourse on something on which he has personal interest,” Barrister Ahsan said.
Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, who could not attend the meeting of amici curiae, also agreed with the suggestion, but said it would be more appropriate that the court should exercise its inherent jurisdiction on suo motu and cited the example of India which had introduced the concept of curative justice to end injustice.
But the chief justice did not agree with the proposal and observed that in case of suo motu, people awarded death sentence would start bringing requests to the Supreme Court day in and day out for initiating suo motu in their favour.
The chief justice recalled that the instant reference had been sent by the president on the advice of the prime minister and adjourned the hearing to Jan 2.