Zia, judges killed Bhutto: Bilawal

LAHORE: Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the Lahore High Court and Supreme Court are the crime scenes of the murder of Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The PPP leader said it was perpetrated by late Gen Ziaul Haq and the coterie of judges of the Lahore High Court, the Supreme Court along with lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats who acted as facilitators.

Bilawal was addressing a Lahore High Court Bar event in connection with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the 1973 Constitution on Tuesday.

He expressed gratitude to Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and other judges for taking up the hearing of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Presidential Reference.

“When the judges wash the stains that colour their institutions, not only will they provide justice to the Bhutto family and Jiyalas but also write in stone that no other prime minister is treated in such a way in the future, be it of the PML-N or PTI,” according to Bilawal. “We expect our courts to set history right. Appealing to the legal community to support the Constitution and justice to wash the stain on our history.”

Chairman Bilawal said those questioning the case and its relevance, as well as the question of law should introspect and consider where the question of law was when the Supreme Court was collecting donations to build dams, demolishing houses of poor and Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was judicially murdered.

The precedent in which the decision in Bhutto’s case was reached is still ongoing. If we are provided justice, not just the precedent of that specific case, the manipulation and victimization would be buried forever and only then we would prosper, he said. The PPP chairman said Bhutto held the Second Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore, united the Ummah and made them realize using an oil embargo against those backing the atrocities being unleashed on the Palestinian brothers and sisters like those that we are witnessing today.

“Against that backdrop, would we consider each leader involved in this decision not dying a natural death, a mere coincidence? “Pakistan was the first atomic power in the Muslim world. It was said that it was an Islamic Bomb. However, this could not deter Shaheed Quaid-e-Awam from compromising on his beliefs and principles.”

Bilawal said that currently there is hyper-polarization and bipartisanship in the country. We never considered politics a means of exacting personal revenge and do not want people to raise the slogan of Jiye Bhutto by force. The culture of name-calling, sending opponents to jail and harbouring a personal vendetta against each other was brought back by Imran Khan.

“We face unprecedented economic, geopolitical and security challenges but we will not be able to tackle them if our politicians are to engage in traditional skirmishes,” Bilawal said and added if the politicians work within their boundaries, we can then compel the institutions to do the same.

He said it is hoped that our traditional politicians not only remember democracy and the Constitution when it is convenient for them or during the opposition. “While one wants to portray himself as the Ameer-ul-Momineen, the other wants to build a Tiger Force,” he said. Bilawal said 70 percent of the country’s population consists of youngsters, and we would like to ask them what they want. The country’s future is in the hands of youngsters. “We have to snatch our rights and make our own decisions to save this country from poverty, unemployment and inflation,” he concluded.