The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted time to Masood Sharif Khattak, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) joint director internal, until January 23 to submit his written reply over media allegations of spending substantial amounts during 1990s.
The three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed resumed hearing into the allegations regarding misappropriation of secret funds by the IB during 2008.
The bench also issued a notice to Tariq Lodhi, former IB head, currently serving as director of NADRA in UK, to be served through the NADRA chairman and foreign affairs secretary, to appear on the next date of hearing.
During the course of the proceedings, Khattak appeared and said almost 25 years had lapsed and he required time to go through his memory and material for submission of his reply.
Expressing his inability to recollect the events of 1990, he said he served in the IB as joint director internal during 1989-90 and not as head of the agency. However, he said an Ehtasab cell was set up at the former president’s house at that time.
“During February 1992, I remembered that I had appeared as witness before a judge of the Lahore High Court over the same allegations and all the claims made in a newspaper article were taken into account by the same bench. But what happened to the case afterwards, I did not know,” he said.
The CJ told him that it would be proper for him to produce in writing whatever facts he knew.
IB AD Legal Naveeda Noor apprised the bench that they had informed Lodhi, who was in the UK. She also submitted a reply by the incumbent IB DG over the allegations.
The CJP told her that the reply was incomplete. He also termed a written reply of the finance secretary satisfactory, which was submitted under the court’s directives of January 2. The CJP also said Lodhi’s appearance would clear many things.
