The case proceedings have assumed importance in the backdrop of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s earlier suggestion that the SC close the case since it did not have enough evidence to launch a criminal prosecution against individuals named in the judgment.
In a follow-up to that proposition, the premier civil investigation agency tasked to probe the case on Saturday submitted a compliance report to the top court, seeking the latter’s guidance in collecting sufficient evidence in the case pertaining to the manoeuvering of the 1990 elections and the implementation of the SC’s 2012 verdict on it.
In what prima facie looks like a tame surrender, the agency noted in the report that it had tried to “unearth the facts and bring truth to light, but the investigation has reached a dead end.” It went on to state that it had left no stone unturned in tracing evidence relating to the alleged disbursement of money to politicians.
According to the FIA, one of the reasons that the investigation could not reach a logical conclusion was the fact that “no army officer gave any statement of handing over money to any private person directly.”
Documents provided by Brig (retd) Hamid Saeed show that money was distributed in Sindh, but the officers who actually distributed the money were not disclosed by him.
The case has witnessed umpteenth twists and turns since Asghar Khan filed it in the apex court in 1996, accusing premier intelligence agency of handing out cash to a group of politicians in the 1990s. Let us keep our fingers crossed to see how things pan out in the case in today’s proceedings.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2019.
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