Ministry fails to produce ISI’s political cell notification

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry said national solidarity will not be compromised at any cost.
Heading a three-member bench of the apex court, hearing the Asghar Khan case against political funding of the ISI in the run-up to 1990 elections, the Chief Justice Chaudhry stressed, “The case is us and we will decide on it. There is no second opinion.”
The Chief Justice Chaudhry said Habib Bank’s report is more important than the Mehran Bank’s report in this case.
Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir, pleading before the bench, said he is in contact with the cabinet division secretary in connection with the ISI’s political cell, adding the cell was established 39 years ago.
The Chief Justice remarked the notification regarding the establishment of the cell, must be in annual gazette of the cabinet division.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain queried, “Are you saying that no such notification was issued altogether; or, defence ministry does not have any copy of it?”
The bench ordered Commander Shahbaz who appeared before the court on behalf of the defence ministry, to produce to the court the notification in question. However, he said defence ministry does not have any copy of the same.
In the last hearing, the court ordered the ministry of defence to produce a copy of the notification under which the political cell of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was formed.
Asghar Khan’s decade-old petition alleges the distribution of funds by former chief of army staff, Mirza Aslam Beg and ex-ISI chief Asad Durrani, to politicians during the 1990 elections in order to keep the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) from coming into power.