Summary A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the case.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought implementation report of cabinet decision in Asghar Khan case until one month.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the case.
“The cabinet had decided military court trial of army officers. Why the order has not been implemented yet?” inquired the CJP.
Representative of defense ministry adopted stance that he has not received summary of the order from interior ministry. He requested the court to grant four week respite for the submission of detailed report.
The court while approving his request maintained that if the court’s order is not implemented, military authority will be summoned instead of defense ministry.
“No one is above the law. The orders of the court should be implemented,” remarked the Chief Justice.
DG FIA told court that a telephone conversation was held with Mir Zafarullah Jamal and he has denied receiving money.
Mir Hasil Bizenjo and Humayun Murree were busy in election and will now appear before the court, he added.
The apex court directed defense ministry to provide important information to FIA and adjourned the hearing until September 15.
Asghar Khan case
A case was filed by the late former chief of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan alleging that country’s intelligence agency had provided Rs140 million to the politicians in the 1990s to form the Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJT) in order to prevent PPP from winning the polls of the 1990 general elections.
The case has been shrouded in complexities as many former army officers including former ISI Chief General (Retd) Aslam Baig and PM Nawaz Sharif were involved.
Hearing of the case was started in 1996 by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan. A detalied judgement was reached in November 2012 by a three-member bench of SC comprising then Cheif Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.
The decision stated that action should be taken against those involved. The detailed order also stated that the late president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, former army chief General (r) Aslam Beg, and ISI ex-DG General (r) Asad Durrani, acted in violation of the Constitution by helping politicians to secure their success against their opponents in the elections of 1990 for which they received funds from Younis Habib.
In light of this decision, a team of FIA had investigated the case under the supervision of then FIA Additional Director General Galib Ali Bandesha, but the inquiry was never completed as the PPP regime during that time lost interest as FIAs development of the case remained slow.
Investigation into the case again picked up in April 2015 with FIA Director General Akbar Khan Hoti forming a joint investigation team (JIT) under the supervision of FIA Additional Director General Khalid Qureshi including FIA Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwer and some other senior directors of FIA as members of the team. The JIT was formed on the orders of former interior minister Nisar calling the team to finalize the case and speed up the process of the case.
Statements of Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, former ISI DG Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, former banker Younis Habib and former Zonal Chief of HBL Younus Memon were recorded in the case.
