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Thursday, May 20, 2010
SC issues notices to president, other legal heirs of Benazir BhuttoStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to President Asif Ali Zardari and other legal heirs of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a case involving the transfer of assets worth billions of rupees.
The bench consisting of Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Saqib Nisar and Justice Dr Muhammad Al-Ghazali issued notices to respondents on an appeal by Mazhar Alam against a decision of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) that ordered the conversion of public property to private.
The respondents include the federation, President Asif Ali Zardari and family, Nusrat Bhutto and Mrs Gulzar Ahmed, administrator of Sheikh Sultan Trust.
In a verdict passed last month, the FSC reversed the 1977 orders of then martial law administrator General Ziaul Haq to take over the control of the Peoples Foundation Trust. The trust was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with the financial support of UAE rulers and owned a number of properties in various parts of the country.
Zia had renamed the trust Sheikh Sultan Trust and converted it into a public trust from a family trust.
The FSC judgment, while declaring the 1977 martial law orders repugnant to Islam, directed the government and its ministries and divisions to return the ownership, properties and assets of government-controlled trust to the heirs of Benazir Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto.
The petition was filed with the FSC by Benazir in 2002 .
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk