ISLAMABAD, April 23: The Supreme Court was informed again on Monday that the inquiry reports by two commissions believed to be insightful and revealing about the 1990s financial scams of the Habib Bank Limited and the now defunct Mehran Bank Limited were still missing.

The commissions were set up to investigate the scams in pursuance of notifications issued on June 17, 1994, and January 11, 1996.

The court directed Attorney General Irfan Qadir to call a meeting at his office of the interior secretary as well as officials concerned of the interior and law ministries to get a proper response from them in black and white about the whereabouts of the reports. The court will be informed about the outcome of the meeting on Wednesday.

The court is hearing a petition filed in 1996 by Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Asghar Khan requesting it to look into allegations that the ISI had provided money to a large number of politicians before the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and stop Benazir Bhutto’s PPP from winning the election.

At the last hearing on March 30, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez expressed disbelief when it was informed that the reports were not found at the law ministry.

On Monday, the attorney general informed the court that the reports were still untraceable and requested it to postpone the hearing so that he could meet senior government officials to get a reply. He was also not sure if the reports had ever been handed over to the government.

The court again highlighted the importance of the reports and said the affidavits of former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani and Younus Habib, the central character in the scam and former chief of the Mehran Bank, were in fact allegations and counter-allegations.

“In case the reports are still missing then due course be followed for tracing the files by instituting criminal cases against those responsible for losing such important reports,” the court said in its order.

The attorney general recalled that SC’s former registrar M.A. Farooqi was secretary of the two commissions and, therefore, could be called to get a clue. Similarly, he said, incumbent Supreme Court judge Saqib Nisar was law secretary at that time and he could also be called.

The chief justice observed that since Justice Nisar was a judge, he could not be called. However, he said, the AG could call Mr Farooqi and recalled how Mr Irfan Qadir as NAB prosecutor general helped to recover the money in a financial scam which also involved Mr Farooqi.

The court also ordered the law secretary to obtain a report from the banking courts about the trial of Younus Habib and submit it to the court.

SECRET FUND: Intelligence Bureau Director General Aftab Sultan filed a reply to a report in an English newspaper that the PPP government had drawn Rs270 million from the IB’s secret fund allegedly to influence loyalty of members of the Punjab Assembly in 2009.

The court had asked the IB about the veracity of the report.

Since the IB chief had claimed privilege, the court decided to keep the reply secret under a sealed cover, but observed that the court should be taken into confidence about the spending.

The court said it might ask Federal Tax Ombudsman Shoaib Suddle, who had also served as IB chief, to assist it in the matter.