Asghar Khan petition: Ex-spymaster absolves ISI of pre-poll fraud

Ex-MI Sindh chief says money went back to GHQ, army acted in national interest.

ISLAMABAD:

Former head of the Military Intelligence (MI) Sindh chapter Brigadier Hamid Saeed submitted his statement in the Asghar Khan case to the Supreme Court on Thursday, claiming that the 1990 operation was initiated by the army and supervised by the MI for “national interest”.

While the court decided to keep his written statement confidential, Saeed told The Express Tribune after the hearing that the army had taken the step given the circumstances at the time (ie, ‘anti-state activities’ of some ‘players’).

According to Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan’s petition, several political parties had received money from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in a bid to rig the 1990 general elections and prevent the Pakistan Peoples Party from winning.

Saeed, however, claimed that it was not an ISI operation and that the MI was supervising it when Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani was its director general.

He further revealed he had received money from the GHQ, out of which he distributed Rs19.1 million among politicians in Sindh and returned the outstanding amount directly to the GHQ.

He also said that then army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg was in contact with him regarding the distribution of money among political parties. “Once, I brought something to the notice of my immediate boss, Gen Durrani, who told me to report to Gen Beg, and not bring such things to his (Durrani’s) notice,” Saeed claimed.

During the hearing, he also presented his 21-year-old diary before the judicial bench, which, he said, had each and every detail of all accounts. Saeed told the court that he did not posses any official document revealing any secret information, adding that “all I mentioned in my written statement is based on my diary, which I maintained on a daily basis.”

Heading the bench, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked the former military official whether he was making this statement with full responsibility. “Absolutely,” Saeed replied.

Although the court also gave him a chance to retract his statement for necessary amendments, he said his message would not be conveyed if certain paragraphs were omitted from the statement.

While the former MI chief did not request his entire statement to be kept confidential, the court itself decided to not make it public, citing “national interest”.

The Supreme Court also announced to conclude proceedings in the Asghar Khan case today (Friday).

Constitution not violated, insists Beg

Meanwhile, General Beg initiated a new debate on Thursday, claiming he did not violate Article 6 or Article 244 of the Constitution by indulging in political activities, as he took oath under the Army Act 1952 in which no restriction to take part in political activities was imposed.

Beg’s counsel Advocate Akram Sheikh Beg told the court that a fresh oath is required from all military generals who took oath under the Indian Army Act 1911, which was borrowed by Pakistan’s military, with slight amendments.

Advocate Sheikh also told the court that the ISI should be taken from the chief executive’s control and be given back to the army. Chief Justice Chaudhry, however, told Sheikh that it was not the court’s job to do so and that Beg, who headed the army from 1988 to 1991, should have requested then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan to do so.

Talking to The Express Tribune after the hearing, Beg said, “My predecessors, like Gen Ziaul Haq, took oath under the Indian Army Act; how they can be tried under Article 6 of the 1973 Constitution?”


Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2012.