PAKISTAN: MURTAZA BHUTTO RELEASED ON BAIL BY SPECIAL COURT FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES

Record ID: 874328

  • Title: PAKISTAN: MURTAZA BHUTTO RELEASED ON BAIL BY SPECIAL COURT FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES
  • Date: 6th June 1994
  • Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (JUNE 5, 1994) 1. GV: BHUTTO SUPPORTERS OUTSIDE COURT 0.03 2. SV: MURTAZA BHUTTO SUPPORTER WITH GUN 0.06 2. GV: SUPPORTERS CHANTING OUTSIDE COURT/MAN WITH GUN (3 SHOTS) 0.16 4. SV: MURTAZA BHUTTO COMES OUT OF BUILDING/KISSED AND GREETED BY SUPPORTERS 0.31 5. GV; POLICE WATCHING 0.33 6. GV: BHUTTO SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 0.49 7. GV: POLICE WATCHING FROM ROOFTOP 0.51 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE SIX: BHUTTO: "I AM GOING TO CONSULT MY COLLEAGUES, AND WE WILL PURSUE THE PROGRAMME, AND REFORM THE PARTY, THE PAKISTAN PEOPLE'S PARTY ALONG THE LINES SET BY ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO. WE WILL IMPLEMENT HIS PROGRAMME AND HIS POLICIES" Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 21st June 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KARACHI, PAKISTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan ASIA
  • Topics:
  • Reuters ID: LVAF0T86T73GLL8II0Z36LDTIUBG
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A Pakistan court freed the estranged brother of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday (June 6) after he was held for seven months on insurgency charges.

    Murtaza Bhutto was released by Karachi's Special Court for the Suppression of Terrorist Activities on bail of one million rupees (32,600 United States dollars) because it could find no evidence strong enough to keep him in jail.

    Murtaza Bhutto faces charges relating to alleged insurgency, activities to destabilise the government by force, spreading hatred and rebellion against the state and provoking anti-state activities. The court ordered Murtaza, arrested last November on his return from Syria after 16 years of self-imposed exile, to promise in writing that he would stay in Pakistan until the case was settled.

    Western diplomats said his release could spark a battle between Murtaza, 39, and his sister, who is 41, for the mantle of leadership of the Pakistan People's Party, founded by their father the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the late 1960s.

    Ali Bhutto remains a popular hero 15 years after his execution.

    More than 3,000 cheering supporters gathered outside Landhi jail in the suburbs of Karachi to shower the freed man with rose petals and jostled to hang garlands around his neck as he emerged from the gate.

    Murtaza, who was elected to an independent Sind provincial assembly in October 1993, said he planned to organise the Pakistan People's Party. "We will pursue a programme to reform the party along the lines set by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto," he said.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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