Interior Minister Rehman Malik . — File Photo

LAHORE: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday the Federal Investigation Agency had ‘solid proof’ in the Asghar Khan case and he was ready to appear in court if called.

The Supreme Court has taken up a petition filed in 1996 by Air Marshal Asghar Khan (retired) accusing the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of financing several politicians, including the Sharifs, during 1990 elections to create Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and to prevent Benazir Bhutto’s People’s Party from winning the polls.

“The FIA has solid evidence in the Mehran Bank scandal that will speak for itself,” Rehman Malik said while talking to reporters here on Sunday.

He said he would appear before the Supreme Court if it called him in this connection.

Mr Malik said the PML-N always talked bout Musharraf’s treason but never dared to get a case registered against the dictator.

He said the interior ministry had issued red warrants for Gen Musharraf (retired) and written to the Interpol in this regard.

He regretted that Shahbaz Sharif made the visit of the Istanbul mayor a “provincial affair”. “It would have been better if the chief minister received the mayor as a guest of Pakistan, and not of Punjab alone,” he said, adding had Raja Riaz been the chief minister he would have been accused of treason for such an act.

“What message the chief minister wants to give by such an act,” he wondered, adding the Punjab government should also have displayed the pictures of the president and the prime minister on the city roads (along with those of the PML-N leadership).

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar has said those who received money from the ISI in Mehrangate should be made accountable.

Talking to the media he said the culprits should get punishment as per law.

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