Chaudhry Abdul-ul-Ghafoor (advocate) told the bench that Shah Khawar (advocate) would be a counsel for Gulzar Begum, administrator of People's Foundation. The lawyer for Gulzar Begum apprised the court that appellant had no right for appeal as he was not respondent in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC).
Aslam Khaki, lawyer for petitioner, requested the court to accept his appeal against an FSC decision which had ordered transfer of assets of People's Foundation to heirs of late Benazir Bhutto. The court directed Raja Aleem Abassi, deputy attorney general, to submit the record of those documents of cabinet division's decision in which it was agreed to file a review appeal against FSC verdict by the former government.
This is pertinent to mention that People's Foundation Trust was founded on August 8, 1974 by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto with financial support from Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahyan. After coming into power in 1977 General Zia-ul-Haq occupied the trust and suspended the board of trustees of People's Foundation Trust, besides freezing its accounts and renamed it as Sheikh Al-Nahyan Trust.
In 2002, Benazir Bhutto had filed a petition in FSC and requested that the assets should be returned to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's legal heirs. The FSC in its judgement on April 15, 2010 while declaring the 1977 martial law orders as repugnant to Islam, directed the ministries and divisions to return the ownership, properties and assets of these two government-controlled trusts to heirs of Benazir Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto. The FSC said that the affairs of the Trust were being managed smoothly by the trustees who had been performing their stipulated rights and obligations in accordance with the procedure laid down in the deed. The hearing was adjourned till May 9.