Former MI chief submits statement in Asghar Khan’s case

Former head of Military Intelligence (MI) Brig (Retd) Hamid Saeed on Thursday appeared before the Supreme Court in Asghar Khan’s case and submitted a written statement in the case.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary resumed the hearing of a petition filed in 1996 by Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan requesting the court to look into allegations that the ISI had financed many politicians in the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and stop Benazir Bhutto’s PPP from coming to power.

The petition was based on an affidavit of the ISI’s former director general Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani. According to Durrani, the former MI head had a role in the disbursement of money to politicians.

Hamid Saeed along with his statement submitted a 21-year-old diary in the court saying it had details of each and every account. He requested the bench to keep his statement’s first eight paragraphs classified, adding that paragraphs nine to 14 of the statement did not need to be kept secret.

In reply to this, the chief justice said that it was Saeed’s discretion to keep certain information confidential and directed him to submit that separately. Moreover, the defence ministry presented a report to the court.

In the meantime, Attorney General Irfan Qadir said that the government had information which was classified and could not be made public. The chief justice in reply to this argument said that the government should produce records as per the court’s request.

He noted, “Durrani had himself stated that out of Rs140 million, Rs80 million had remained unused, adding that, the amount had been deposited in a special account.”

Counsel for former military chief Gen (Retd) Mirza Aslam Baig Advocate Akram Sheikh in the course of hearing said that the ISI should be brought under the control of the army to establish transparency.

Calling for the introduction of reforms in the army, he said that the court should declare void the government’s notification bringing the ISI under executive control. Upon which, the chief justice said that it was not the job of the court but that of the government.

The hearing was subsequently adjourned until tomorrow (Friday).

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 18 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. 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.