IT is almost 45 years to the day that former prime minister Z.A. Bhutto was hanged on April 4, 1979, for a murder he did not himself commit.
Since then, there have been three prime ministers from the PPP – Bhutto’s daughter Benazir (twice), Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. And an equal number of PPP presidents — Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari and Asif Ali Zardari (now twice). None agitated to have Mr Bhutto’s conviction set aside or expunged.
In April 2011, President Asif Zardari (Bhutto’s son-in-law) filed a reference before the Supreme Court under Article 186 of the Constitution, seeking the court’s opinion on whether, in essence, Bhutto had been treated fairly by the Lahore High Court and the appellate Supreme Court.
Zardari’s reference hung fire for 12 years. During that time, the Supreme Court has seen nine chief justices, and the country nine prime ministers. The present incumbent Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa took up the case. Buttressed by “the able assistance of the eminent legal minds”, a nine-member bench delivered its unanimous opinion on March 6.
Mr Bhutto lives still — through the PPP he founded.
In it, the SC bench construed the silent inaction of successive........