ISLAMABAD, March 6: Five chief justices of the supreme court have retired, two of them unceremoniously, since a human rights case, questioning the ISI’s role in national politics was instituted in 1997.

The case still remains undecided and there is no indication that it will be taken up in near future.

Habib Wahabul Kheiri, prominent counsel, who had represented the petitioner, Air Marshall Asghar Khan, said that whoever touched the case, had a downfall. Kheiri says that the case will not be decided and the ISI will continue to dabble in the national politics.

The case had originated from Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan’s letter sent to the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah based on a statement issued by the then interior minister Naseerullah Khan Babar on the floor of the national assembly.

Gen Naseerullah Khan Babar had informed the national assembly that the ISI had collected Rs140 million from Habib Bank which were distributed among various politicians before the 1990 elections. Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg was COAS at that time.

In 1999, a bench headed by Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui, after hearing the three retired generals, Mirza Aslam Beg, Asad Durrani and Naseerullah Khan Babar, and the attorney general, had reserved judgment, hinting that it would lay down parameters for the working of ISI’s political cell.

The court had observed that prima facie the operations of the political cell of ISI were in conflict with Article 17 of the constitution.

The court, after sometime reopened the case on Naseerullah Khan Babar’s application, demanding that Farooq Ahmed Leghari, who had allegedly obtained Rs32 million from the defunct Mehran Bank, should also be summoned.