Intelligence agencies are working beyond their mandate: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed annoyance over the workings of intelligence agencies, terming their activities beyond given mandate.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that the secret agencies were not working as per their mandate saying, “We cannot comprise on the interests of the State”.

The apex court resumed the hearing of infamous Mehrangate scandal, issuing a warning letter to Younis Habib, the central figure of the scandal, for writing a letter directly addressing to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Habib, who had served as former chief to Mehran Bank, has asked for an unconditional apology from the Supreme Court in this regard.

Addressing to former head of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. General (Retd) Asad Durrani, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain observed, “You have to decide so you better hire a lawyer”.

The Chief Justice while referring to Durrani commented, “You are accepting that you distributed money. You and Aslam Beg were generals when this happened and we don’t know the consequences of this act”.

On March 9, the then ISI chief testified before the apex court that he received instructions from the then chief of army staff Mirza Aslam Baig to make arrangements for disbursement of Rs140 million among the candidates to rig the 1990 general elections.

He recorded his statement while appearing before a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, on a 1996 pending plea of Asghar Khan.

Durrani confessed, “I received instruction from the COAS, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, that a certain business community in Karachi had raised some contribution to support the election campaign of the IJI and if I could arrange it to be distributed as per the formulas that would be conveyed to me by the election cell in the President’s office”.

The apex court directed the authorities concerned to make public reports of the former inquiry commission regarding Mehran Bank and Habib Bank. The CJ remarked that a written order will be passed to make the report public.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Mar 14 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.