Post by RUKHSANA on Apr 4, 2010 13:25:52 GMT
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: Murdered in the name of the "law"
On the 4th of April 1979, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's first elected Prime Minister was hanged to death in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.
The charge was a conspiracy to murder Nawabzada Ahmad Raza Khan Qasuri, a "rebel" member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who had been elected a member to Pakistan's National Assembly on the Peoples Party ticket.
The prosecution's story was that some people ambushed a car in which Ahmad Raza Qasuri was traveling along with his father, and Qasuri's father was killed in the ambush. The prosecution alleged that those who ambushed Ahmad Raza Qasuri's car were acting on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's "instructions".
There are some interesting facets to this trial which consistently made headlines in world media as long as it lasted.
The case was tried, by a five member bench of the Lahore High Court, in blatant contravention of Pakistan's laws, resulting in the mutilation of of due process, truncating the normal course of justice, and denying the accused two chances of appeal.
Under Pakistan's laws, murder cases MUST pass through commital proceedings in the court of a Magistrate Class 1, where the mandate of the trial magistrate is only to determine if there is reasonable possibility that the accused could have been involved in the commission of the crime he/she is accused of.
If the magistrate reaches the conclusion that the accused could have been involved, the accused is committed for trial by a Sessions Court.
If the Sessions Court finds an accused guilty and convicts an accused, the accused has the right to file an appeal in front of a Single Bench of the High Court.
If the Single Bench of the High Court upholds the Session Court verdict, the accused can file for an intra-court review by a larger Bench, usually a three member bench, called a Full Bench.
If the Full Bench also upholds the conviction, the accused still has the option to move the Supreme Court of Pakistan on points of law.
In Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's case, committal proceedings in the court of a magistrate, as well as trial by a sessions judge were illegally omitted from the process, thereby mutilating the leagl process and rendering it illegal.
In view of the illegal way in which the case was tried, its entire proceedings were bad in law, i. e., illegal and do not have any legal force.
Since the trial itself was bad in law, so was the verdict.
Bhutto's execution, therefore can only be called a murder with the aid of pliable judges of the time.
