Supreme Court of Pakistan. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court appears to have succeeded in silencing its detractors who accuse it of targeting only politicians when during the hearing on Friday of a case relating the doling out of money to politicians by the ISI in the 1990s, it said that the proceedings would now solely focus on the roles played by former army chief Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani and then head of Mehran Bank Younus Habib and not pay much attention to politicians who were the alleged beneficiaries.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez decided to hold future proceedings on the basis of what had transpired in the court on Thursday and Friday.

The petitioner of the case agreed with this assessment. “We are expecting a judgment on the political activity of the armed forces and intelligence agencies and not against politicians,” commented Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan.

The court is hearing the 1996 petition by the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief who had requested the court to look into the allegations of ISI’s financing of politicians in the 1990 election to limit the victory of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.

However, before the court shaped the outline of the case, it took to task Gen Aslam Beg for comments he had made in his affidavit filed in reply to Thursday’s testimony Younus Habib. The comments were seen as an attempt to malign the court.

“That in submitting this counter-affidavit I sincerely thank this Honourable Court, for making me complete my ‘hat-trick’, of appearing thrice before this apex court -- first before Chief Justice Afzal Zullah, second time before Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and now before this honourable court, under the dynamic leadership of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. This is an honour bestowed on me, which no other COAS can possibly claim,” Gen Beg wrote, adding: “And yet, I wonder: ‘Jane kis jurm ki payee hay saza yad naheen (Why am I being punished, I know not).”

“Is he (Gen Beg) here to play golf? He should tender apology or we will put him to task,” the chief justice observed.

At this, Gen Beg jotted down his ‘sincere apology’ for the paragraph in his counter-affidavit with a request to delete it. The paragraph was removed.

Advocate Akram Sheikh, representing Gen Beg, said his client was being maligned at the behest of the PPP government and requested his client be disassociated from the proceedings.

Advocate Salman Akram suggested a way forward through constitution of a commission similar to that of the memogate scandal to further investigate the allegations. He said the Supreme Court had done a similar exercise earlier and it would be appropriate that the court should treat the available evidence as adequate and punish those who had violated the law.

But the court asked the counsel to seek instructions from his client what he wanted in real term since it would be difficult for him to prove the allegations levelled by Asad Durrani.

After seeking fresh instructions, Advocate Salman said his client wanted a ‘symbolic judgment’ and wrote on a plain paper four precise pleadings.

According to him, Asghar Khan is seeking a declaration and direction that persons, including defence and army officers (respondents in the case) who acted to interfere with and manoeuvre the electoral process in any manner, including through disbursement of funds, subverted the Constitution.

Besides, the court should also declare that no member of the armed forces was obliged to obey a command in violation of oath of his office and could not take the defence of “command of the superior”.

“Receiving secret funds and non-disclosure thereof constitutes serious electoral fraud with consequences under the election laws,” he said.

He sought a direction for the federation to initiate appropriate proceedings under criminal and election laws against the alleged givers and recipients of funds for political purposes, including the respondents and persons named in Asad Durrani’s letter to then prime minister on June 7, 1994, and his July 1994 affidavit. Younus Habib declined to add further to his statement he had filed on Thursday, involving the former army chief and former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan -- the main characters behind the scam.

Before rising for the day, the court ordered Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to ask the government whether the reports of a commission set up to investigate the Mehrangate scandal had been made public and, if not, what were the reasons behind it.

The court, however, said these reports should be made available for judges’ perusal in-camera.