Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to give an in-camera briefing in Asghar Khan case.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) allowed in-camera briefing while resuming the hearing of the implementation of the landmark judgement in the Asghar Khan case.

As the hearing went under way, FIA Director General Bashir Memon submitted a request for an in-camera briefing. “There are some facts pertaining to the case which we want to tell the court separately,” Memon said.

The chief justice then approved the FIA’s request and remarked, “All facts should be brought before the nation, no institution is above the law.”

On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court issued a 141-page verdict, ordering legal proceedings against Gen (r) Aslam Beg and Lt Gen (r) Asad Durrani in a case filed 16 years ago by former air chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan.

Khan, who passed away in January this year, was represented in the Supreme Court by renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja.

Khan had petitioned the Supreme Court in 1996 alleging that the two senior army officers and the then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had doled out Rs140 million among several politicians ahead of the 1990 polls to ensure Benazir Bhutto’s defeat in the polls.The Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) comprising nine parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League, National Peoples Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, had won the 1990 elections, with Nawaz Sharif elected prime minister. The alliance had been formed to oppose the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party.

In 1996, Khan had written a letter to the then Supreme Court Chief Justice Nasim Hassan Shah naming Beg, Durrani and Younis Habib, the ex-Habib Bank Sindh chief and owner of Mehran Bank, about the unlawful disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes.

Published in Daily Times, September 26^th 2018.