Supreme Court resumes Zulfikar Bhutto presidential reference from Dec 12

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa to take up the presidential reference regarding revisiting of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s murder case judgement on December 12.

A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will include 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.

On April 02, 2011, then PPP government had filed a reference in the apex court to reopen the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged on April 4, 1979, in Rawalpindi.

Former President Asif Ali Zardari had forwarded the reference to the SC. Babar Awan had argued the reference on behalf of the PPP gov­ernment.

Bilawal Bhutto in October 2018 filed the application to become party in the ZAB refer­ence through advocate Farooq H Naek.

Headed by then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, an 11-judge bench had heard the reference. however, the case had its last hearing in Jan 2012.