SC issues interim order on Asghar Khan case
Top court issues notices to heirs of late air chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan
January 03, 2019
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a three-page interim order on the case filed by late air chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan.
On Monday, the top court had issued notices to the legal heirs of Asghar Khan, after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) recommended closing the case filed by the late air chief marshal.
"Notices have been issued to determine whether money was given to politicians or not," the interim order stated. "The FIA conducted multiple investigations," it added.
"The statements of the witnesses are contrary," the SC order read.
A related paragraph from the FIA report, submitted in court on Monday, was also made part of the order.
"Those who were party to the case, are not aware of the receipts nor mode or time of payments," the interim order upheld.
Stating that "the real amount which was transferred into bank accounts is not apparent either", the order added. "Related banks did not cooperate with FIA either and did not give the record for the past 24 years."
"The defendant did not present any evidence," it continued.
Further, the order stated, "This case was filed by Asghar Khan who is no more."
The hearing of the case has been adjourned for one week.
The case
On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court issued a 141-page verdict, ordering legal proceedings against Gen (retd) Aslam Beg and Lt Gen (retd) 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), consisting of nine parties including the Pakistan Muslim League, National Peoples Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, had won the 1990 elections, with Nawaz Sharif being elected prime minister. The alliance had been formed to oppose the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples 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.
The 2012 apex court judgment, authored by the then-Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, had directed the Federal Investigation Agency to initiate a transparent investigation and subsequent trial if sufficient evidence is found against the former army officers.
