Pakistan's apex court upholds sentences of army officers for conspiring against Benazir Bhutto's 1995 government

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the sentences of military officers involved in the 1995 conspiracy to overthrow the government of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The case was based on a plan by a group of officers to storm a corps commanders meeting scheduled to be held on September 30 in 1995 at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to kill then Army chief Gen Waheed Kakar and prime minister Bhutto.

The plotters allegedly wanted to set up a so-called Islamic government in the country.

The conspirators were led by Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, Brig Mustansir Billa and 38 other military officers, including Col Mohammad Azad Minhas and Col Inayat Ullah Khan. They were arrested on September 26, 1995.

The Field General Court Martial (FGCM) sentenced Maj Gen (retired) Abbasi to seven years in jail and Brig Mustansir Billa to 14-year jail term for their involvement in the attempted coup.

Col Minhas and Col Khan were court-martialled in September 1996 for their alleged role in the conspiracy and sentenced to four years each in prison.

Years later, Col Khan challenged the sentence in the Supreme Court in 2000 and Col Minhas in the Lahore High Court which dismissed his appeal in May last year. Later he also challenged it in the apex court.

The court after hearing the appeals had reserved its judgment on February 15 which it announced, dismissing their appeals against the original conviction.

Bhutto was assassinated on December 27, 2007, soon after she had addressed an election rally in the historic Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.