ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday referred to the “judicial murder” of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on April 4, 1979, noted that 44 years later, the “unfortunate episode” was repeated with a decision of the Supreme Court in the polls delay case.
Taking part in the National Assembly session, the prime minister equating the two decisions said today, a murder of justice took place which was highly regrettable.
PM equated decision over polls delay to “judicial murder” reminiscent of Bhutto’s case
He said in the cabinet’s meeting, they had demanded that a reference over the judicial murder of the late prime minister, which had been pending for the last 12 years, should be taken up and decided by the full court.
He said the world knew that the ruling against Bhutto was a “judicial murder.” One of the former judges, who had decided the case, had accepted it in his memoirs, he added.
The prime minister also lauded Bhutto and said he was among the founders of the 1973 Constitution and that his historic contribution would always be remembered.
He also asked the House to pray for the departed soul of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Meanwhile, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif termed the Supreme Court’s decision as a “chargesheet” against the three-member bench that heard it, and said a reference should be submitted against its members in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
Addressing a media conference in London, Nawaz said: “I think a reference should be submitted in the SJC against these three judges for their decision which carries the status of a chargesheet against them.”
Nawaz said that the three-member bench had refused the decision of its four fellow judges. “What they call a verdict is not a decision but a one-man show in the words of the judges themselves, and the decision of this case has already come before from four judges,” he added.
Nawaz said all of the above was being done in “love for a blue-eyed [boy] by paralysing the government and destroying everything”, adding that the current situation the country was passing through was “very sad and highly painful”.
He alleged that this situation was not of his or the people’s making but the judges’ for the past 70 years.
Nawaz alleged that the judges in the three-member bench rewrote the Constitution through their decision last year on a presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution while they reproached politicians for supposed unconstitutional actions.
The PML-N supremo questioned why the three-member bench hesitated in making a full court bench for the Punjab polls case and was insistent on hearing it. “I don’t understand it,” he added.
Nawaz said that two members of the bench were those who had given decisions against him and his party.
Although he did not specify the cases, Justice Ahsan was part of the bench that had disqualified him in the Panama Papers case.
The former prime minister alleged that certain former judges and chief justices had colluded with the establishment to orchestrate his ouster.
Nawaz contrasted the treatment meted out to former prime ministers and dictators by the courts, questioning why the doctrine of necessity was created for the latter and why they were “hugged and garlanded” and allowed to amend the Constitution.
He said that even if the doctrine of necessity was accepted as a reality, “why was it only afforded to dictators and not prime ministers?”
