Supreme Court of Pakistan. - File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The proceedings on Wednesday seemed to suggest that the Supreme Court could widen the scope of a case relating to the doling out of money by the ISI to politicians in the 1990s by focusing its attention on a news report about involvement in the scandal of the civilian Intelligence Bureau — a decision that could send the state on a wild goose chase.

“All intelligence agencies are doing something which does not come under their mandate, including the IB,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry lamented. He said that earlier the names of the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence were being mentioned, but now the IB had also jumped into the fray.

“They (intelligence agencies) think only they can run the country and the rest of the people are dreadful,” said Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, a member of the three-judge bench hearing the 1996 petition of Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Asghar Khan. He 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.

“This is just a tip of the iceberg of what we have witnessed over the past 60 years and that is why we need strong action and guidance from the court,” said Salman Akram Raja, who is representing Asghar Khan.

Reacting to a report in an English newspaper that the PPP government had withdrawn Rs270 million from IB’s secret fund allegedly to influence loyalties of the members of the Punjab assembly in 2009, the court asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to read out the news item in the open court.

But before reaching any final decision, the court decided to summon the publisher, editor and reporter of the newspaper, along with evidence they claimed to have in their possession.

The attorney general is also required to seek instructions from the quarters concerned to ascertain veracity of the news item.

COMMISSION: Younus Habib, a main character behind the bribery controversy and former head of the now defunct Mehran Bank, moved a miscellaneous application requesting the court to appoint a commission or asked the National Accountability Bureau to recover the money disbursed to politicians through the ISI and Yousuf Memon, an advocate.

He said the amount so recovered be adjusted towards the settlement of liability of the Habib Bank Limited. Against a loan of Rs1.48 billion taken from the HBL, the settlement amount reached Rs3 billion. Only Rs1.15 billion was paid while the rest was settled, he added.

COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT: Younus Habib also filed a counter-affidavit for which he was scolded for writing directly to the chief justice instead of following the legal procedure.

“Why are you writing letters to the chief justice; do you have some kind of association with him?” the chief justice asked sarcastically.

“In future, you (Mr Habib) should be careful and restrain from writing such letters,” the court said in its order. Mr Habib apologised for the mistake and read out a hand-written statement he had filed in response to the affidavit of former army chief Gen Aslam Beg.

He said he had submitted the affidavit with sincerity and honesty to bring the truth on record and there was no question of scandalising the highest court of the country. Mr Habib said ever since Asghar Khan had filed the petition he never met any official of the civil or military intelligence or political figure of any political party, except Gen Aslam Beg who spoke to him several times over the past two years. He said he had no interest in politics and could never think of maligning any person.

Referring to a picture he had earlier submitted to the court, Mr Habib said this proved how former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Gen Aslam Beg had pampered him. About the affidavit of former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, he said he had referred to Brig Hamid Saeed and Col Akbar as two officers who were introduced to him as ISI officers. But he requested the court to delete the word ISI from his earlier affidavit.

About the declassification of earlier statements by Asad Durrani and former interior minister Maj-Gen (retd) Naseerullah Khan Babar which were recorded in camera, the attorney general said many things in these documents had already been made public.

About reports of a commission on the Mehran Bank and Habib Bank, he said these could not be retrieved because the interior secretary was currently on a foreign trip.

The court said that an appropriate order in this regard would be issued at the next hearing on March 30. It asked the attorney general to seek instructions whether he would be representing intelligence agencies or not.

The court asked both Asad Durrani and Younus Habib to engage a lawyer.

Mr Durrani insisted that the ISI as an institution was never involved in distributing the money and said there were elements outside the agency who had been appointed to carry out the task.

“How could you (Mr Durrani) deny the involvement of the ISI and the MI; you were holding the caps of both the organisations,” the chief justice asked.

During the proceedings, Wadood Qureshi, a journalist, submitted some documents based on a previous press conference of Nawaz Sharif alleging that President Asif Ali Zardari, Aftab Sherpao, the late Farooq Khan Leghari and Anwar Saifullah had taken money from Mehran Bank to dislodge the government of Sabir Shah in the NWFP.