The Supreme Court of Pakistan has admitted a mistake in the sentence given to former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged 44 years ago.
The court said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in 1979 during military rule. There was a murder case against him, but the trial against him was not conducted properly.
Hearing in this case was going on for the last several weeks and on Monday the court had reserved the decision. Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa said, ‘We do not believe that the case against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was conducted properly nor was the entire procedure followed.’
The review petition on the sentence awarded to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was filed by former President Asif Ali Zardari in 2011.
Asif Ali Zardari is Bhutto’s son-in-law and is now also the head of the Pakistan Peoples Party formed by him.
There has been debate in the political circles of Pakistan regarding the sentence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that he was given death sentence in a hurry and a proper trial was not conducted against him. Zardari had filed a case in this matter. On which the decision has come after 13 years of hearing.
This petition was heard by a constitutional bench of 9 members. During the hearing in the court, a lawyer even said that there was no murder case against Bhutto but the case was murder.
After the historic verdict in this case, Asif Ali Zardari said that three generations of our family waited to hear these words of the court. The court will now issue detailed orders in this case.
Human rights organizations of Pakistan have also been believing that during the 11 years of Zia ul Haq’s rule, there was a period of dictatorship and democracy was abolished.
London-based political analyst Yusuf Nazar, who was close to the former PM, said that democracy had ended during Zia’s era. Military laws were in full force and anyone was punished.
He said that a large number of PPP workers were killed and humiliated during that period.
Not only this, Nazar said that it was the era of Zia ul Haq, when Pakistan moved rapidly towards religious fundamentalism. Terrorism took refuge in the country and the seeds of terrorism were born under the pretext of Afghanistan.