june issue 2011

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said a Supreme Court case review of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s infamous murder trial would correct history.

It might just do that. But what else could it do?

The Supreme Court constituted an 11-judge bench to revisit the 1979 death sentence of the former prime minister based on a reference submitted to the apex court and signed by the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari. As legal counsel, Babar Awan has posed five questions to the apex court, including the following:

“Whether in the peculiar circumstances of this case awarding and maintaining of the death sentence was justified or it could amount to deliberate murder keeping in view the glaring bias against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto?”

But what is the motive for this reference? Will revisiting this trial affect how ZAB is remembered? Will a positive decision by the SC boost the PPP’s fortunes in the next general elections?

I.A. Rehman writes, “Some PPP leaders could also be feeling strongly about the need to get Mr Bhutto’s name cleared. But has anyone considered the consequences of this initiative?

In this special report, Newsline analyzes the potential consequences of the reference and the legacy of Bhutto, and also seeks the opinion of two former PPP players about the claim of “judicial murder.” Also, there is an extra feature on famous political assassinations in Pakistan and the conspiracy theories that continue to swirl around them.

Continue by clicking on a link below.

Special Report:

The Trial, Part II by I.A. Rehman.

Bhutto in the Pakistani Imagination by Ayaz Amir

Interview: Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Chairman, Sindh National Front by Sairah Irshad Khan

Interview: Ghulam Mustafa Khar by Sairah Irshad Khan

Whodunnit? by Nadir Hassan