The Supreme Court issued on Wednesday notices to two former Intelligence Bureau chiefs during its first hearing of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) secret funds case, which was earlier delinked from the Asghar Khan case.
The apex court had earlier taken suo motu notice on the issue following a story carried by The Express Tribune, which reported that Rs270 million was spent from the IB’s secret fund in 2008 by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to influence the political situation in Punjab, which is governed by Pakistan Mulsim Legaue-Nawaz (PML-N).
Former spymasters Masood Sharif Khattak and Tariq Lodhi have been directed to provide details of the alleged transfer of money from IB’s account for political purposes during their tenures.
Heading a three-member bench, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday also directed the incumbent director-general of the IB to submit a written reply in this regard, as well as any other document or receipt relevant to the case.
Quoting certain documents from the IB’s official record, the published story further revealed that a similar transaction was made between 1988 and 1990. An official from the IB also submitted before the court classified documents in this regard.
The Supreme Court is hearing the case separately after delinking it from the Asghar Khan petition in which it recently held former top military generals responsible for manipulating the 1990 general elections to prevent PPP from winning.
PML-N’s lawyers also filed a petition in the court alleging that the PPP misused public funds for its political agenda. During Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Chaudhry directed Advocate Gujjar to determine whether the PML-N’s petition should be clubbed with the IB case or not.
Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the bench that two different transactions were mentioned in The Express Tribune story, adding that there was a need to examine them separately.
The chief justice, however, observed that they would not go into details at this stage and adjourned the hearing for two weeks.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2012.
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