Government counsel Babar Awan told the apex court that he would submit proof to substantiate his stance that Bhutto's dead body was hanged as he had already been killed before the court verdict. Justice Jawad S Khawaja, a member of the special bench, hearing Bhutto reference case, said that (God forbid) if a military dictator tried to seize power in future, weak elements in judiciary would still support him.
Justice Khawaja remarked this, after hearing Awan's arguments, in which he said that a member of the six-judge bench, Molvi Mushtaq had grudges against Bhutto because he was rejected twice for the slot of chief justice Lahore High Court (LHC) by Bhutto.
The lawyer said that when he (Movli Mushtaq) was not promoted as LHC chief justice, he went to Switzerland on a two-year long leave, but returned home, cancelling his leave immediately when the military dictator took over by dismissing a democratically elected government. The bench directed the law ministry to submit all the record of Molvi Mushataq's two year leave to Switzerland.
Justice Javed Iqbal said that the present judiciary has blocked dictatorial rule, and if anybody tried to seize power at gunpoint, not even a single judge would support him. The bench also directed the government lawyer to give arguments that how Molvi Mushataq had biased against Bhutto. The lawyer said that against biased attitude of Molvi Mushataq, Bhutto had given numerous applications, where he had categorically said that he would not appear in Molvi Mushatq's court, as he had twice rejected his for chief justice LHC.
The lawyer contended that Movli Mushatq had said that the applications would be looked into once the trail was over. The bench was shocked to hear this and directed the lawyer to submit all the applications submitted by Bhutto.
Justice Chaudhry told the government lawyer to stress on the point that case against Bhutto was filed in 1974 while it was disposed off in 1976 due to lack of representation, then how it was reopened after passage of so many years. The lawyer said that he had not even dreamt that the case could be reopened. Justice Sair Ali told him to come out of his dream and instead collect the record of the case, which is very important.
Awan told the court that Molvi Mushtaq had issued three death warrants against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and according to that he had to be hanged between April 2, 3 or 4. The CJP directed advocate general Punjab to submit the record of Police Station Ichhra, Lahore, where FIR was registered against Bhutto. He said this was a case of international importance and the shortcomings in it would be looked into.
Meanwhile, A. K Dogar, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed an application in the apex court, which said that the ZAB presidential is not worth hearing, as it has nothing to do with people's interest. In his application, the lawyer termed Bhutto as a controversial person. "When Bhutto was hanged, people distributed sweets and prominent among them was Babar Awan, who is now representing the government in the case," he maintained. The Chief Justice told the lawyer that it had not been decided yet whether his application was worth hearing or not and adjourned the hearing till May 04.