ISLAMABAD: The hearing for the presidential reference on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been scheduled by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa will lead the nine-member larger bench, including Justices Sardar Tariq Masood, Mansoor Ali Shah, Yahya Afridi, Amin-ud-Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi, and Musarrat Hilali, set to convene on December 12.
Originally filed in April 2011 by then-President Asif Ali Zardari, the case was heard six times between January and November 2012, with the first five hearings conducted by an 11-member bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The last hearing, in November 2012, was conducted by a nine-member bench. The presidential reference, filed under Article 186, seeks the Supreme Court’s opinion on revisiting the murder case that resulted in Bhutto’s death sentence.
IHC Adjourns Nawaz Sharif’s Appeal, Opting for Merit-Based Hearing in Al-Azizia Case
In another development, the Islamabad High Court presided over by a two-member bench consisting of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Gul Hassan Aurangzeb, adjourned Nawaz Sharif’s appeal in the Al-Azizia case.
The court decided that the case would be heard on its merits rather than focusing on procedural or technical matters. Lawyers Amjad Pervaiz and Azam Nazeer Tarar, representing Nawaz, argued for a merit-based hearing, which was granted.
During the proceedings, Nawaz’s legal team informed the court that they no longer wished to pursue the case related to the Judge Arshad Malik video scandal. In 2018, Nawaz received a seven-year jail sentence and a Rs1.5 billion fine in the Al-Azizia reference.
Nawaz had filed petitions to reinstate his appeals against convictions in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield cases upon his return to the country after four years of exile. The appeals were reinstated on October 24. The same IHC bench previously acquitted Nawaz in the Avenfield reference.
