ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to former spymasters Masood Sharif Khattak and Tariq Lodhi to provide details of the alleged transfer of money from Intelligence Bureau’s (IB) account for political purposes during their tenures.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading a three-judge bench, directed incumbent Director General of IB Akhtar Hussain Gorchani to submit his written reply in this regard and any other relevant document or receipt to back his case.
The chief justice had earlier taken suo motu notice on a story carried by The Express Tribune in which it was claimed that Rs270 million were spent from IB’s secret funds by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to topple the Punjab government in 2008.
A similar transaction was made during the period of 1988 to 1990, the news item had revealed quoting certain documents from IB’s official record.
An IB official had also submitted classified documents to the court on the issue.
The court is hearing the case separately after delinking it from the Asghar Khan case in which the court recently declared former army and ISI chiefs responsible for manipulating the 1990 general elections to prevent Benazir Bhutto from forming a government.
PML-N alleges PPP misused public funds
Lawyer of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), Advocate Gujjar, also filed a petition in the apex court alleging that the PPP misused public funds to achieve its political agenda.
During Wednesday's hearing, the chief justice asked Advocate Gujjar whether his petition should be clubbed with this case or not.
Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the bench that in the news item, two different transactions were mentioned and insisted that both should be examined separately.
The chief justice observed that at this stage the court is not going into details of the case and adjourned the hearing for two weeks.
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