ISLAMABAD:
With the epic saga of the Asghar Khan petition nearing its conclusion, two intelligence outfits pointed to each other regarding the trail of millions of rupees in illicit funds used to influence politicians in the 1990 general elections and its aftermath.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, hearing the case on Wednesday, sought details of five accounts of the Military Intelligence (MI) known as ‘S’ (survey section) accounts, where a large sum was deposited in 1990. Commander Shahbaz, the defence ministry’s legal wizard, will brief the court in this regard today.
Responding to a query by the bench, former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Assad Durrani revealed that only Rs60 million out of Rs140 million were distributed among various politicians and political parties; the rest were deposited in the MI’s ‘S’ accounts on his directions. The court was also informed that Rs30 million from the Rs140 million were transferred to the account of then army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg’s organisation ‘Friends’.
Gen Beg’s counsel, however, offered a different account of the fate of the Rs140 million. He maintained that Rs60 million were utilised for political intelligence and the remaining Rs80 million were deposited in ISI’s ‘K’ accounts for external intelligence. The counsel further informed that the ‘K’ codename stood for Karachi.
Following the conflicting accounts, the chief justice then questioned Asghar Khan’s counsel Salman Akram Raja, who told the court that the money went into institutional accounts and could be verified from relevant ministries and the State Bank of Pakistan. In yet another version, Raja cited former interior minister Naseerullah Babar’s statement that the Rs80 million was transferred to the General Headquarters (GHQ) Welfare funds.
With all this confusion, Chief Justice Chaudhry announced that former MI chief Brigadier Hamid Saeed will appear before the court tomorrow, adding that the latter had already informed SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain that he had reached Islamabad. Observing that the court had heard almost all parties in the case, he said it may be concluded by today (Thursday).
Interestingly, Justice Akram Sheikh observed that under Article 183 of the Constitution, only the chief of army staff could initiate action against armed forces officials involved in this scandal.
President’s politics
During proceedings, Chief Justice Chaudhry made it clear that the president of the country cannot head or support any specific political party.
“The president is not supposed to support any party as was done in 1990 when a group of political parties (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) was created with support from the then president,” the chief justice observed during proceedings.
“The president has nothing to do with any political party… he is a president for everyone,” he added.
Ahead of the 2013 parliamentary elections, the observations from the country’s highest court have implications for President Asif Ali Zardari, who also heads the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). A five-judge bench of the Lahore High Court is also hearing a case regarding his dual offices.
The observations came after a representative of the president’s secretary submitted an ambiguous reply about the existence of an election cell in the presidency. The chief justice said that while the presidency’s submitted record showed there was an ‘election information’ cell in the presidency in 1990, it mentions that no such cell has been operating since 2008, creating doubts as to whether it was operating prior to that. The court, however, gave the president’s secretary a chance to submit a fresh reply after thoroughly scanning the presidency’s record in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012.
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Shame on the institutions involved in such activities of destablizing their country as they are declared as eyes and ears of the country.
It has been proved ,money distributed among the political leaders and in response they worked out the agenda. there is eyewitnesses and documentary evidence which support the allegation.Documents never speak lie.
Conspirators were succeeded and PPP deprived the victory.in the general election.
Armed forces must do their duty as specified in the constitution. and constitution grante no permission that army commit interfence in the contry'd politics. Every institution of the country should adopte constitutional line for proceed with,in this way,country can be saved from complications/cromes, committed every day.
Apex court decison is a landmark judgement in the history of the country.