Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was innocent, convicted by unconstitutional court: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has issued a detailed opinion on the trial leading to the 1979 judgment that sent former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the gallows, stating the former premier was an innocent person and sent to death by an unconstitutional court.

Headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a nine-judge bench issued the 48-page opinion on the presidential reference to answer whether it could revisit its previous verdict. Supreme Court Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah also wrote additional notes in the detailed opinion.

In the detailed opinion, it was stated that an innocent person was punished without a transparent trial.

It said that the court was not constitutional at the time when the case against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was conducted, as there was martial law in the country. “The country and the courts were under martial law at that time, and the courts of the judges who took the oath of loyalty to the dictator were no longer the courts of the people,” it said adding that Ziaul Haq directly benefited from the decision. If Zulfiqar Bhutto had been released, he could have prosecuted Zia-ul-Haq for high treason.

Also read: ‘Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not given a fair trial’

The FIA had started the investigation even before receiving the Bhutto case file. If the police had completed the investigation, the FIA had no authority to reopen the file. There was no court order to re-investigate the Bhutto case, the opinion said.

In its detailed opinion, the Supreme Court further stated that the high court, through its own trial, invalidated several provisions of the law, violating the fundamental rights of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, whose protection was its responsibility.

In the Bhutto case, the requirements of a transparent trial were not fulfilled, and there was no direct evidence against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the opinion said.