ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Saturday said that the use of public funds to undermine democracy was akin to treason, DawnNews reported.

The federal minister was referring to the case being heard by the Supreme Court relating to the doling out of money to politicians by the ISI in the 1990s.

“Conditions could never be bleak if institutions worked in accordance with the constitution,” she said. “The Asghar Khan petition has brought out the truth from history. The handing out of money to political parties was an act of treason against the state.”

“The court has already unveiled the faces. It shall now punish them,” she added.

The information minister also requested the SC to make Roedad Khan a respondent in the case, saying Khan had forced Younus Habib, then head of Mehran Bank, to open fake cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The SC has said that the proceedings of the case, popularly dubbed by the media as the ‘Mehrangate scandal’, would now solely focus on the roles played by former army chief Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani and Younus Habib.

Habib has submitted a statement in court, saying that former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Aslam Beg, Durrani and Roedad Khan had forced him to arrange funds for anti-PPP politicians before the elections in 1990.

An affidavit submitted in court by Durrani, which details the amounts of money handed out to different politicians, alleges the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif received Rs3.5 million from the then ISI head.

Awan today also remarked that the Sharif brothers had a habit of frequenting the SC.

“The Sharif brothers should also present themselves in the Supreme Court now and answer the allegations placed against them,” she added.