Mehran Bank report: SC won’t take no for an answer

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the attorney general to accelerate efforts and positively produce by May 10 lost reports of the inquiry commission on ‘Mehran Bank and Habib Bank’, as these reports would ultimately decide fate of the case.
A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing a petition filed by Air Martial (r) Asghar Khan 16 years ago against distribution of million of rupees of public money by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) among anti-PPP politicians to manipulate the 1990 election. The case is commonly known as the Asghar Khan case and Mehran Bank scandal.
At the onset of hearing, the court rejected a report submitted by the Interior Ministry on the Mehran Bank scam. The court termed the report unacceptable, saying it was based on memoirs of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The report quoted Malik as saying that he was delegated the responsibility to investigate into the Mehran Bank scam by then interior minister Naseerullah Babar, however, the reports of those investigations were no longer available. In compliance with the court’s earlier order, Naveeda Noor, IB assistant director (Legal), presented before the court a sealed report containing the accounts of Intelligence Bureau for the years 2008-09. The court had summoned this report from IB in response to a news report that in 2009, an amount of Rs 270 million was taken out from the account of IB for the purposes of toppling the Punjab government.
The court opened the report for examination and after examining it, got it sealed again and directed that it be kept on record in safe custody. After having gone through the report, the court made the IB director general as party in the case and directed him to file his concise statement over the allegations about spending of the amount for toppling the Punjab government in 2009.
Appearing on notice, Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the court that despite serious efforts ‘Mehran Bank and Habib Bank Inquiry Commission’ reports, could not be traced out. He said in compliance with the court’s March 30, 2012 order for recovery of these reports, he convened a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik, which was also attended by the interior secretary, but the reports had not been found available with the ministry, except the report which was based on memory of the then FIA director Rehman Malik. The court noted that perhaps under the law such report was not acceptable.
The attorney general, however, stated that he was trying his level best and ensured the court that all efforts would be made to trace the missing reports in the Interior Ministry as well as the Law Ministry.
Salman Akram Raja, counsel for Asghar Khan, told the court that Hamid Mir, a senior anchor person of Geo TV, had contacted him and informed him that he possessed the reports, which were said to have been lost. He also stated that he could request Hamid Mir to place the reports on record. The court allowed him to do so.
The court noted that Gen (r) Mirza Aslam Beg in his concise statement had also taken the position of possessing knowledge about the distribution of huge amount and maintaining the account by the ISI. The court noted that from the concise statement, a common factor transpired that a full account was maintained and all the payments made by then ISI director general were kept in this account and no amount was misappropriated or misused. Mazhar Ali Chaudhry, a representative of NAB, told the court that he was collecting the record in respect of the case in which Younas Habib had entered in compromise/plea-bargain. He said for this exercise some time was required.