Former banker Younis Habib, a central figure in the 1996 Asghar Khan case, passed away in Karachi on Wednesday after a protracted illness.

Habib, 78, breathed his last at Karachi's Agha Khan University Hospital. His funeral prayers were offered the same day at the Baitussalam Mosque in Defence Housing Authority.

Habib began his career in 1963 as a clerk in Habib Bank Limited and retired in 1991 as the bank's provincial head.

In Nov 1991, he received permission to establish Mehran Bank with the help of former Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq Ali and became its chief operating officer.

Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Asghar Khan had filed a petition in 1996 accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence of financing several politicians during the 1990 elections to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad to contest against Benazir Bhutto's PPP and prevent it from coming to power.

Habib's alleged role in the case was that he was made to arrange Rs340 million ─ allegedly by former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and former army chief Aslam Beg ─ to distribute among the politicians contesting against the PPP under the pretext of "supreme national interest".