Asghar Khan petition: Illegal orders should not be obeyed says SC

Apex court’s detailed verdict absolves armed forces of any responsibility for rigging 1990 elections.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court’s (SC) detailed verdict on Asghar Khan’s petition announced on Thursday made it very clear that ‘illegal orders’ should not be obeyed.

Declaring that Gen (retd) Aslam Beg and Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani acted independently while bribing politicians and rigging the 1990 elections, the verdict absolved the armed forces from any responsibility for the act. It added that both generals’ actions had defamed the institution.

The armed forces must remain confined to defending the country and upholding its Constitution, noted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the detailed verdict on the petition.

The role of the country’s armed forces, perhaps for the first time in Pakistan’s history, came under debate in the aftermath of the SC’s short order on the petition. Two of the country’s former top military officials had been held responsible for rigging the 1990 elections to prevent Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from coming into power.

Then Inter-Services Intelligence director general Lt-Gen Assad Durrani had actually admitted to the distribution of funds among politicians on then army chief Gen Beg’s instructions. Durrani had justified his actions by saying they were undertaken in the ‘greater national interest’.

Beg, in his statement, had also maintained that his and Durrani’s actions did not amount to misconduct since they were carried out under a lawful chain of command.

But the judgment very clearly stated that “if any such illegal order is transmitted, the same is not worthy to be obeyed.”

Commenting on the armed forces’ role, it stated that “a member of the armed forces must remain committed to defending Pakistan … against external and internal threats and, subject to law, acting in aid of civil power when called upon to do so by the federal government.”

“In the course of discharge of his duties, a soldier is obligated to seeing that the Constitution is upheld,” it added.

The 141-page judgment also commented on the president’s role.

“The President of Pakistan is not supposed to indulge in politics as it has been established in the role of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan [during his tenure]… [he] has no authority to create an election cell or support, in any manner, a favoured candidate or political party, either by issuing directions to the armed forces or to civilians.”

The court order also singled out defence authorities for failing to furnish details regarding an account of Gen Beg’s organisation ‘Friends’, where the record indicated Rs30 million – from the Rs140 million intelligence agencies allegedly obtained in 1990 for political purposes – were deposited.

While the court had directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate charges against the two generals and politicians accused of accepting bribes from them, the agency maintained it could not probe the latter until the detailed verdict came out.

Meanwhile, Salman Akram Raja, Asghar Khan’s counsel in the case, told The Express Tribune that Durrani and Beg could be tried under article 6 of the Constitution – which defines the act of high treason, punishable by death – since they had subverted the Constitution.

“The issue of secret accounts that were maintained by secret agencies also required to be further investigated,” he added.

(Read: Detailed court verdict)

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2012.