The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned hearing of the Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan’s petition for a week, observing that proceedings of the case would be accelerated to decide it as soon as possible after May 17.
The petition was filed by Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan who alleged the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) disbursed huge amount of money among several politicians to manipulate 1990 general elections.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain was informed by Attorney General for Pakistan Irfan Qadir that misplaced investigative reports on defunct Mehran Bank and Habib Bank scams were not made available so far.
Salman Akram Raja, counsel for Asghar Khan, apprised the bench that former interior minister General (r) Naseerullah Babar had provided a copy of reports to an anchorperson of a private TV channel.
Submitting the report before the court, Raja informed the court that he had managed to collect the commission’s report on Mehran and Habib Bank scams from the said anchor person.
To a query by the chief justice, Qadir said he could comment on the report after checking its authenticity from relevant desks, adding that no commission report was available on the Mehran and Habib Bank scams in the Ministry of Law.
During the hearing, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Additional Prosecutor General Mazhar Ali Chaudhry submitted a report pertaining to the details of plea bargain with defunct Mehran Bank’s chief operating officer Younis Habib, after which the court directed NAB to provide copy of the report to all parties in the case.
Muhammad Akram Sheikh, counsel for the former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg, told the bench that his client had submitted his reply to the court with a plea that he had nothing to do with the disbursement of the amount.
He said according to his client, then ISI chief Asad Durrani had distributed the amount among politicians. The court then asked him to provide copies of the reply to all parties concerned.
Subsequently, the bench adjourned hearing of the case until May 17.
