Asghar Khan’s case detailed order: Supreme Court asks recovering money with interest

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday announcing the detailed verdict on the Asghar Khan case ordered recovering of money from culprits in the manipulation of 1990 general elections through political funding by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

In an unprecedented move, the Registrar of the apex court handed down the detailed judgment of the case which stated the then President, COAS and DG ISI misused their power.

In the detailed verdict, SC has stated that Younis Habib had confessed to distributing Rs40 million. The secret agencies have no right to make an election cell and the ISI and MI are duty bound to safeguard the borders, it added.

Elections of 1990 were rigged; the then President, Army Chief and DG ISI exercised their power illegally. It further stated the president is the head of state and it does not suit him to support any group. Creating a political cell in the President House is illegal, it added.

It is pertinent to mention that a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had announced a short order, on Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan’s petition filed in 1996 accusing the ISI of distributing Rs60 million among the politicians to manipulate the general elections of 1990.

Ruling that the 1990 polls were rigged, the SC on October 19 directed the government to take action against former army chief Gen (Retd) Aslam Beg and former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani for violating the Constitution by manipulating the 1990 general elections.

The court also ordered the initiation of legal proceedings against the politicians who allegedly received donations to spend on election campaigns in 1990 and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to conduct a transparent investigation on the criminal side against all of them and if sufficient evidence was collected, they should be sent for a trial according to the law.

The court ordered that any election cell/political cell in the Presidency or ISI or MI or within their formations be abolished immediately and any letter/notification to the extent of creating any such cell/department (by any name whatsoever, would stand cancelled forthwith).

The detailed verdict also contains Brigadier Hamid Saeed’s diary which contains details and names of those involved in the alleged distribution of money. It served as an elaboration on the short verdict announced earlier and is penned down by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

It also ordered a probe into allegations against the Intelligence Bureau (IB) distributing Rs270 million in Punjab during governor rule.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Nov 9 2012. Filed under 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.