About the Murder Case Trial of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and his companions

On the 20^th of September 1996, Mir Murtaza Bhutto-the chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto)- and his companions Ashiq Jatoi, Yar Mohammad Baloch, Sajjad Haider Gakhro, Wajahat Hussain Jokhio, Sattar Rajpar, and M.Rahim Brohi were on their way back from a public rally they had attended in the suburbs of Karachi. They were stopped by a police contingent a few yards away from Murtaza Bhutto’s 70 Clifton resident. The streetlights had been shut, the roads were cordoned off, and guards at near by premises were told by the policemen to leave their posts and enter their premises. Police men were positioned in trees and all around the vicinity, there were not only 50 to 70 policemen at the scene, but also a number of high level officials. The policemen opened fire and all of the seven men were fatally wounded. The victims were left to bleed without aid under the eyes and ears of the policemen for half an hour to 45 minutes.

 They were not taken to Jinnah hospital or Civil hospital; both hospitals equipped to deal with such emergencies, but were divided and taken to different locations. Murtaza Bhutto was taken to Mideast Hospital, which has neither the facilities nor the staff to deal with such cases. Autopsies showed that several of the victims, Jatoi and Bhutto included, received execution style shots at a point blank range. None of the policemen were injured or killed, except for one officer who suffered a foot injury, which was later proven to be self-inflicted.

 The scene of the crime was washed up post haste that very night leaving nothing to be examined. No policemen were arrested, but rather the witnesses to the assassination were taken into police custody and held without warrant or legal arrest. The police refused to let Bhutto’s family register a First Information Report as is every Pakistani’s right to do and filed one of their own instead naming the victims and witnesses of the incident as offenders. The families of the victims were not informed of where their loved ones had been taken and had to scour the city’s hospitals and police stations in order to find them.

 A tribunal was set to investigate the findings of the incident, but amongst the terms of reference set by then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto it was stipulated that any incriminating findings against the accused police officers could not be entertained in a court of law but that any findings in their favour were permissible. The tribunal headed by Chief Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid found that Bhutto and his companions could not have been killed without the authorization of a higher power, though it stopped short of naming that power. The police were also found guilty of abusing their power through their excessive use of force and neglecting their duty in giving timely aid to the victims and by neglecting their forensic and investigative duties after the fact.

 The case has spent more than twelve years in the court thus far and has gone through a change of several judges;  Finally District Judge promulgated his decision on 5.12.2009 acquitting all the accused persons. All the officers have been rewarded and promoted to higher offices.

An appeal against the decision of District and Sessions Judge have been filed in the High Court of Sindh which is pending till date.

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