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There was unnecessary sensitivity over the words, "even after Mr. Bhutto", and the acting chief justice exclaimed, "So what? what do you mean by "even after Mr. Bhutto?". The very use of the words "even after Mr. Bhutto" caused irritation and annoyance. I wanted to out short the unpleasentness. To stop it, i told Aftab Gul to sit down, saing that as far as the timing is cincerned, the court had said that if i needed more time, they would grant me more time and that i had confidence in the court in relation to the time and that i had confidence in the court in relation to the starting of the case. My Lord, i would also like to clarify something which has been said in the high court orders. It had been stated in one of these orders that at one stage when i was speaking i said that i had been subjected to insult right from the begining of the trial and that these insult would be setteled and that in saying so i thumbed the table.Now, My Lord, i am not the kind of person who will deny something which is factual or which is correct. In my opinion, my Lord it was not a question of having been ultrasensitive in politics. The question was simply that of culmination of insult, and this is subjective for every one has his own history or having been subjected to insult. If some poor underpriviledge person has been insulted from the time of his birth, obviously his level of accepting insults will be different.
it is unfortunate that in our society, in every society there are people who have that kind of an existence where it is a way of life to be insulted. but here it must be taken into account that i had been not in situation where uncalled for and avoidable insult had been unnecessarily and ingratuitously heaped upon me. It was in that context that i said, to the court, as i have said to your lordshipalso, that i was not there to prtotest against the sentence to be given. I said, you are to despense justice, you are here to pass a judgement. You can pass any judgement you like, but why do you want to insult me> I said, is it also a part of the penal code that when you want to convict a man for murder, then you must persistently insult him all along the trial?
As i mentioned yesterday, i am not a rootless phenomenon. People have been traumatically affected by what has happened to me. There has ben an agony in the people. I know that i am their leader. They are not going to just say, weel, nothing happened, a cup of tea was taken and all is well in world. It was in rthat sense that speaking in the high court, i give a graphic evaluation of the posotion;it was not a threat in any sense. All i said was that people are watching when insuls are being heaped on me unnecessarily.When my wife's blood was spilled in Gaddafi Stadium, people from my district Dadu and other places took her blood from the hospital and put in on the "Chadar" of "Qalander"and vowed that they would not allow this kind of thing to continue.This was there reaction.
When the couirt re-opened on the 9th of january and i was coming out of the room in which i was made to sit before going to the court, i was informed that i was wanted inside the chambers. Understandably taken aback, i went in and saw all the five judges sitting there, they had made a court out of the chamber The chief justice told the SP, Zafarullah, who was accompanying me; to sit down. There was another chair, so i also sat down. He immediately shouted at me to get up and said, "You are an accoused. You are not supposed to sit." So i was an accused and was not supposed to sit down. I stood up. then i was asked if the application was mine and if i had signed it. I replied in the affirmative and was told to argue it. My Lord the question here is that i had never been called to the chambers before, i had never seen the court sitting in the chambers, nor did i know the laws on the subject. The procecution counsel were not there the other co-accused were not there, the confessing accused and their counsel was not there. I was called alone into the chamber and asked to argue my application. I explained i could not do taht. I could not argue it.It could supplement it and i could elaborate certain points. Then my lawyers were called and given a hearing of hardly five or ten minutes. Mr. Awan mentioned two or three cases, including wali Khan's case and others. When i wanted to supplement certain points, i was told," You are a strange person;some time you say you want yourt Lawyers, some time you say you want to talk yourself. Make up your mind "I asked his Lorship where the contradiction lay. I had earlier said that my Lawyers should be permitted to argue the legal points and i would like to made some supplementory observations. At this time chief justice retorted,"You know this is not Mochi gate;you are not to make a political speech". I knew it was not a Mochi gate. but it was not, it was the chamber of the high court.
We had made such applications from the very begining and they had all been heard in open court. Why was this application also not heard in open court? My Lord, it was a very important application asking for the transfer of the case.Why was it not heard in open court? And if it had at al to be heard in the chamnber, Why did it have to be a secret chamber trial?My Lord, having concluded the aspect of the trial relating to bias, and i would like to be enlightened here if there is any field in which bias has not been covered. I would like to dilate on the extention of this bias for, as i said earlier, i am covering bias in its most comprehensive sense. Here, I would like to mention the chief Justice's personal insistence that i should be taken immediately to the death cell.
Now Muy lord certain orders relating to ban on political activity, some exercise which had been taking place in the high court, three or four days before the judgement, army presense and other things like that were indicative of what was to come.In jail itself there were clear indications that all was not well in the state of denmark, floodlights were being put up, towers were being erected, sirens were being put and on two or three occasions inspections were made. So, when the jail superintendant came to me, ha sat with me for quite some time and tried to cover up all the extraordinary activity that was taking place. When i kept quite , he tried to console me and said,"Have Faith in God". Naturally, "i'll have faith in God, in whom else can one have faith". But the point is he was trying to console me and then he said to me,"But if the worst come to the worst, i want to assure you that orders have already been passed that you will remain where you are. My Lord, I smiled at his effort to prepare me for the worst, for he has not been in court to hear the observations, indications given earlier which told me so clearly, we are just waiting for that final day when with lust in out eyes we will see you hang till you die. So i just smiled and said nothing.On the 18th, at 5:30 p.m. or so the deputy supredent of the jail came to me with a very small gulity face. I could see from his face that something was up. I offered him tea for i just asked for a cup for myself, but he declined and told me that it was an unpleasent duty and he was ashamed to do it, but he had been ordered to take me immediately to the death cell and that they had already got into a lot of trouble for not having taken me there when i returned from the court 11:15 or 11:30 a.m. and now the Additional IG prisons had been sent to ensure that i am taken to the death cell. So, i was dragged to the death cell.My lord the reason i point all this to you is not that it maters to me in that sense, but because here in the supreme court, factually incorrect statements have been made. It hasbeen said that i was given three rooms with a courtyard and was not segregated, that the term "Death Cell" is a misnomer. Well, My Lords, if it is a misnomer, then surely there was no need to shift me from where i was to this other place called the death cell, where i was kept locked for 23 hours a day.
In May, i was shifted to rawalpindi. Believe me, My lord, without exaggeration, it was as if Shivaji was being into Aurangzeb's camp, as if i was a foreign captive. The courtyard was full of soldiers. They were hovering all over the place, even in the corridor. The corridor was full of refuse, one could hardly stand there.Then there were six cells -the death cell , a bathroom and four other cells.These four cells are fly proof, The death cell was completely exposed, not even a fly proof, it was summer, it was hot, my whole face was full of flies and mosquitoes. The rooms of the guards had fly proofs. I'm glad about that. I could at least have been given one too. I have still not got it. Then, My Lord, The bathroom was completely open and i was expected to go there with people marching up and down the time.Until, your Lordship came tomy rescue, i just refused to eat. Not that it was a hunger strike as such, it aws just refused to eat. it was just that in those circumstances, i simply could not eat. Then your Lordship intervened and some facilities were accorded, in the sense that a 'chick' was put up for the bathroom a switch was put inside my room to regulate the light which used to be on, all the time, before that, a telephone has been placed outside my cell and which use dto ring incessantly, was removed , the number of people in the corridor was reduced. But re-encroachments again started after few days. I would hardly come out in the corridor that i would be told to go in as my time was up. So, i decided not to come out at all. After all my self respect was m,ore important. I could not submit myself to every indiginity. neither did i want keep on complaining, but in june, i fell ill and general shoukat, an army general, not a PPP man was sent to see me. He had tears in his eyes when he saw me. The room was full of dust, the spring of the bed were jutting out, my back was examined, it was in terrible shapes and had scars on it. When he went the bed was changed. And also this question of maltreatment continues.
It has been said that i amended the constitutions, overlooking the fact that these amendments were through the national assembly of Pakisatn and though the senate and were not unilateral as they are being termed. They were constitutional amendments. What type of amendments are being made today in violation of the supreme court Judgment? These amendmentd are a gross disservice to the country and will contribute to the country's breakdown. I shudder to think of the amendments on seperate electorates. My Lord, we operated under the umbrella of the constitution. Where is the constitution today? Wherein lies the validity of these amendments?My lord, president Yahya Khan suffered from the misnomer that he had a legal framework order, which controlledeverything. I told him that once the Assembly comes, he will be out of the picture because the Assembly will be sovereign and the legal framework order will then become a vestigial organ and will have no relevance. So also today, whatever laws are passed, they will have no relevance for the coming Assembly.The moment the coming Assembly passes the first resolution of the first act,declaring its soverignty,everyone else will be out of the picture.
In the view of surrounding circumstances, i find that we are in a very delicate situation and i say without any vested interest that the sooner the people become participants, the sooner the people are mobilised for the supreme defense of Pakistan, the better it will be, because martial law de-martialises the nation. It is a breach, not a bridge.My Lord i speak as a patriot, wihtout casting aspersions on anyone's judgment or decesions. My Lord, nobody has remained for million years, ceasars have come and gone;hitler spoke of a thousand years and within ten years was surrounded by ashes and rubbles. The people being the main repository of power, it is important that power be delegated to them soon and without further procrastination.Now Your Lordship has given me a direction to improve on urdu, i am trying to be more eloquent in urdu. My Lord, when one is in a death cell, matters occur to one which have never occured to one before. I find 'Saraiki' language to be one of the best and sweetest languages in the sub-continent and i would like to end with these words of a Saraiki song which says: