Nawaz, JI chief, others summoned by SC
RECORDER REPORT
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Javed Hashmi and others involved in the Asghar Khan case to appear before the apex court today (Wednesday).
The apex court had already issued notices to 31 respondents in the case, including Abida Hussain, Altaf Hassan Qureshi, MQM founder Altaf Hussain, Javed Hashmi, Jam Mashooq, Ajmal Khan, MQM Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed, Khursheed Shah, Ghulam Mustafa Khar and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirjaul Haq.
The apex court is hearing a case regarding implementation of its 2012 verdict in the Asghar Khan in which, former Prime Minister Sharif and others had been declared of taking money from the country’s premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) back in 1990.
In 1996, Air Marshal Asghar Khan (retd) had filed a human rights petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of doling out money to a group of politicians in the 1990s.
The case was initiated by the air marshal after Benazir Bhutto’s interior minister Gen Naseerullah Babar (retd) had disclosed in the National Assembly how the ISI had disbursed funds to purchase the loyalty of politicians and public figures so as to manipulate the 1990 elections.
After 16 years, the petition was filed and the Supreme Court in its judgment, penned by then Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ruled that the 1990 general elections had been polluted by dishing out Rs140 million to a particular group of politicians only to deprive the people of being represented by their chosen representatives.
The court had, however, threw the ball back to the then PPP government by directing it to take necessary actions under the Constitution and law against former Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg (retd) and former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen Asad Durrani (retd) for their role in facilitating the group of politicians and political parties to ensure their success against their rivals in the 1990 elections.
As per the affidavit submitted by the then DG ISI Durrani, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had received Rs3.5 million, Jamaat-i-Islami, Rs5m, Syeda Abida Hussain Rs1m, former KP CM Mir Afzal Rs10 million, former Sindh CM Jam Sadiq Rs5 million, Muhammad Khan Junejo Rs2.5 million, Pir Pagara Rs2m, Altaf Hassan Qureshi and Mustafa Sadiq Rs0.5 million each, Maulana Salahuddin Rs0.3 million and miscellaneous groups Rs5.4 million.
The recipients also included Jam Yousaf who received Rs0.75 million, Humayun Mari (son-in-law of Akbar Bugti), Rs1.5 million, a prominent Jamali tribe leader, Rs4 million, a Kakar tribe elder Rs1 million, a Bazinjo tribe elder Rs0.50 million and Nadeem Mengal, Rs1 million.
General Durrani added to the list of recipients a few more names in his letter submitted on June 7, 1994 which included Mustafa Khar Rs2 million, Hafeez Pirzada Rs3 million, Sarwar Cheema, Rs0.5 million and Miraj Khalid Rs0.2 million.
The remaining Rs80 million of the total of Rs140 million were either deposited in the ISI’s ‘K’ fund (Rs60 million) or given to Director External Intelligence for special operations.
According to details provided by former Sindh chief of the Military Intelligence (MI) Brig (retd) Hamid Saeed Akhtar, six accounts were opened in different banks and on the directions of the director general MI, the funds were remitted to different accounts, including one of GHQ (Rs40 million) and regional office of MI Quetta (Rs10.5 million), while Rs3.828 million were sent to Sindh Regimental Center for construction of men’s living barracks, interrogation cells and meeting other expenses.
As far the funding to politicians, media persons and others, Hamid revealed that Rs5 million were remitted to the account of interim Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Sindh interim chief minister Jam Sadiq Ali (Rs5 million), Muhammad Khan Junejo (Rs2.5 million), Abdul Hafeez Pirzada (Rs3 million), Sibghatullah Pir Pagara (Rs2 million), Muzaffar Hussain Shah (Rs3 million twice), Ghulam Ali Nizamani (Rs0.3 million), Arbab Ghulam Rahim (Rs0.2 million), Salahuddin of Takbeer newspaper (Rs3 million), and Yousaf Haroon (Rs5 million).
The remaining amount of Rs67 million, including interest, had later been sent to the GHQ along with bank statements, according to the former MI officer.
