A five-member larger bench of the apex court on Tuesday referred the matter, urging the court to review its earlier order dismissing appeals filed by Major-General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi (Retd) and others against convictions awarded by a Field General Court Martial for plotting to overthrow the 1995 government of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, to the Chief Justice for constitution of new bench to hear the pleas.
Headed by Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, the bench comprised Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousuf and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali. As the bench took up the pleas, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar pointed out that he had been advocating for one of the petitioner, thus he was unable to hear the matter under the norms of justice.
At this, the bench referred the matter to the Chief Justice for formation of another bench to hear the pleas. Major-General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi (Retd), his wife Shahida Zaheer, Brigadier Mustansir Billah (Retd) and Colonel Inayatullah Khan (Retd) moved the review petitions.
The Supreme Court rejected Major-General Abbasi's appeal filed in 1997 against the seven-year jail term awarded by the FGCM. The appeal was dismissed and the court observed that the matter was outside the purview of the civilian courts. Major-General Abbasi (Retd), Brigadier Mustansir Billah (Retd), two colonels and 38 other military officers were arrested on September 26, 1995, on charges of plotting to storm a corps commanders' meeting to be held on September 30 at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.
They had also allegedly plotted to proclaim "Khilafat" or Islamic rule, with Major-General Abbasi as "Amirul Momeneen" (leader of the faithful) after assassinating the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the then Army Chief General Abdul Waheed Kakar, senior cabinet ministers and senior military officers.
Details of the conspiracy were revealed after Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a co-conspirator and chief of his breakaway faction, called Harkatul Jihad Al Islami turned an approver. On his evidence, the FGCM awarded the seven-year jail sentence to Major-General Abbasi (Retd).
A large cache of arms and military uniforms had also been confiscated. The FGCM also awarded 14-year jail term to Brigadier Mustansir Billah (Retd) for his alleged involvement in the attempted coup. Qari Akhtar was not convicted as a part of the deal with the government. He was later reported to have slipped to Kabul where he ran a training camp.
After September 11, 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan, the training camp was hit in a bombing raid in which most of his trained men were killed. Qari Akhtar then disappeared from Afghanistan. He was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2004 and handed over to Pakistan.
His name was mentioned by Benazir Bhutto in her last book, "Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West," in which she wrote that she believed that Qari Akhtar's gang wanted to kill her. Qari Akhtar was again arrested in Lahore on February 26, 2008 for his alleged involvement in an attempt to assassinate Benazir Bhutto in Karachi on October 18, 2007, the day when she arrived in Pakistan after ending her eight-year exile.