ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will resume on Monday (Feb 11) the hearing of the case about the implementation of the landmark 2012 Asghar Khan verdict on a financial scam that hit the 1990s elections.

On Jan 11, then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar after accepting the plea of the family of the late retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan had ordered fixing of the matter before a bench after his retirement.

Now a three-judge SC bench consisting of Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan will take up the case on Feb 11.

Then the court had also summoned defence Secretary Zameer Hussain to take the court into confidence about the status of the inquiry against military officers involved in the financial scam.

On Dec 29, 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had suggested to the SC to close the implementation of the Asghar Khan verdict since it did not have enough evidence to launch a criminal prosecution against individuals named in the judgement.

Moreover, the FIA report had also contended that accurate amount given to politicians was not visible and even the banks concerned did not provide the required record appropriately at this belated stage i.e. after about 24 year, the concluding paragraph read out by the DG of FIA stated.

Moreover, the GHQ, which was conducting its own probe, was yet to inform the FIA about the matter, hence no legally acceptable evidence was available with the FIA on the basis of which a criminal case might be initiated against alleged politicians, the report said.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2019