Decade-old petition finally finds its way to the court

Supreme Court to hear Asghar Khan’s petition filed against groups receiving funds from ISI on Feb 29.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday finally set a date for the hearing of a decade-old petition filed by Asghar Khan, reported Express News.

The court set February 29 as the date for the hearing of Asghar Khan’s petition filed in the apex court a decade earlier.

Asghar, who was heading the little-known Pakistan Tehrik-e-Istaqlal, recently joined the more prominent PTI at a joint news conference with Imran Khan.

Both Khans had called upon Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to immediately take up the filed by Asghar to punish those politicians and political groups who have been receiving funds from the Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Figures from Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz are among those groups who have allegedly received money from the ISI in the past to run their election campaigns.  Nawaz Sharif’s party is one of Imran’s major rivals, and both parties have publicly critised each other of late.

“I urge the Chief Justice of Pakistan that the Asghar Khan petition is immediately reopened,” Imran had said. “Those political parties who have been getting money from the agencies don’t have any right to rule the country. Neither can they protect the public interest.”

Asghar was one of the top leaders at the centre of a mass movement that culminated in what the PPP terms the judicial murder of its first leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979.

He had called for hanging Bhutto publicly and allegedly wrote a letter to the country’s powerful military to further this case. The retired air force officer has not held a significant position in politics since then.