ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: The hearing of presidential reference about revisiting the murder trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took a dramatic turn on Monday when a son of a former chief justice approached the Supreme Court with an application and declared the reference a “propaganda blitz” at taxpayers’ expense. And in another development, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, an amicus curaie, excused himself from assisting the court in the reference.

He took the decision because of objections raised by Advocate Ahmed Raza Khan Qasuri whose complaint had implicated Mr Bhutto in the conspiracy to kill his father, Nawab Mohammad Ahmed Khan.

In his reply submitted to the Supreme Court on Saturday, Mr Qasuri had questioned the impartiality of seven of the 10 amici curiae appointed by the court to assist it in the reference, saying they could be friends of the court, but certainly not the friends of the complainant (Mr Kasuri).

According to him, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Abdul Latif Afridi, Barrister Zahoorul Haq, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Tariq Mehmood had a strong leaning and unstinting loyalty towards Mr Bhutto.

“In view of apprehensions shown by Advocate Qasuri, I express my inability to assist this honourable court in the matter,” Tariq Mehmood said in a one-page application, though he acknowledged that the issue involved was certainly a matter of great honour for the applicant.

The court accepted his request, but said he should have assisted it because he had no association with the PPP.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan acknowledged before the 11-judge bench that he was a loyal worker of the PPP but would try to submit his opinion by setting aside his political affiliation. He said he was not worried about the concern expressed by Advocate Qasuri and the court would have to decide about his assistance in the case.

Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja observed that “we as judges always deal with cases dispassionately because we do not have any personal opinion in this room”.

In his application, Azizur Rehman, son of Supreme Court’s former chief justice Anwarul Haq, requested the court to order recovery and examination of certain documents he had cited in a list.

Justice Anwarul Haq had presided over the SC bench which upheld a Lahore High Court verdict sentencing the former prime minister to death in March 1979 during the rule of then army chief Gen Ziaul Haq, who had overthrown the PPP government in July 1977.

The list submitted by Azizur Rehman contains the War Commission Report and books written by Ayub Khan, Asghar Khan, Sherbaz Mazari and Salman Taseer in which Mr Bhutto’s rule and character were described. He requested the court not to rely on books written by Mr Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto which, according to him, were only meant for self-projection.

The list also contains PTV archives relating to Mr Bhutto’s public speeches on East Pakistan, Zulm ki Dastan (1977) detailing Mr Bhutto’s brutal rule, archives relating to the interview of Anwarul Haq, documents in the law ministry and record of the Supreme Judicial Council relating to Safdar Shah’s fake FA degree and details of the secret Dalai Camp in Azad Kashmir.

Azizur Rehman alleged that the PPP government under President Asif Ali Zardari was carrying out a propaganda blitz at taxpayers’ expense to erase the memory of Mr Bhutto’s ‘brutal rule’ and present him and his family as victims. In this process, he alleged, they had tried to defame and malign honourable judges. He said that despite vicious threats to themselves and their families, these judges had the courage, based on solid evidence, to carry out their duty and punish the guilty persons, including Mr Bhutto.

Azizur Rehman said: “Politicians, lawyers and journalists are all concentrating on political angles and concocted stories of ‘unfair trial’. None one of them seems to have read the Supreme Court judgment which details the motive and proof.  None of them refers to the confessional statements by FSF (Federal Security Force) officers regarding the murder conspiracy (of Nawab Ahmed Khan). The FSF officers confessed knowing that they would be hanged along with Mr Bhutto and were hanged.

The review petition was rejected unanimously by the full bench including Justice Safdar Shah and Justice Dorab Patel.

“The Supreme Court is now being asked to revisit the case when concerned witnesses, lawyers and judges are all gone. Even Mr Bhutto praised the Supreme Court for giving him a just and fair hearing.”

Azizur Rehman claimed that his parents and his family had borne the brunt of vicious threats hurled at them allegedly by the Bhutto family, PPP, lawyers and judges. The judges were viciously maligned and threatened in 1979 through personal visits,
signed letters and telephone calls by PPP office-bearers, the application said.