Mehrangate scandal: Money distributed on orders of Aslam Baig

Former Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Asad Durrani revealed on Friday that the money was
distributed to politicians on the directives of the then army chief General (R) Mirza Aslam Baig and the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
During the hearing of the case filed by Air Martial (R) Asghar Khan against the ISI's alleged role in distributing money amongst politicians in the Supreme Court, Durrani informed the court that he wasn't sure if Ghulam Ishaq Khan was involved in the scandal, but he said that he had "backed" it.
Durrani also said that the money was collected by the business community of Karachi. Earlier, Aslam Baig while submitting his reply in the Supreme Court had snubbed Mehran Bank's former chief Younus Habib's allegations.
Baig, in his statement, had said that Habib, the central protagonist of the scandal, was trying to "scandalise" the court's proceedings and was trying to malign his and former president's name.
Younus Habib's allegations were rejected in the first paragraph of the four-page affidavit submitted to the court by Baig. The remaining affidavit consisted other details and references from the previous court hearings.
An overview of the document was done by the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Chief Justice Chaudhry pointed out that paragraph 14 of the affidavit was contemptuous. Shaikh defended Baig saying that the paragraph should be read in context with the other paragraphs. Baig apologised to the court and asked if he could remove that paragraph. The chief justice permitted him to do so.
The chief justice observed that there were conflicting statements given to the court by all the respondents, hence it was necessary to launch an inquiry in this case.
Concurring to the chief justice's statement, Baig's counsel Akram Shaikh said that if a judicial commission is constituted by the court, it will be duly accepted.
Advocate Salman Akram Raja said that the records from banks where the money was transacted from should be obtained. He also said that all the respondents, being government officials, have violated the oath by
committing this act.
Advocate Raja said that directive according to the constitution should be given so that such a scandal do not surface in the future.
The affidavit has been handed over to the media, while the other documents submitted by Baig's counsel Akram Shaikh remained with the judicial bench.
In the documents, Shaikh maintained that his client had previously complied with the court's orders and was still willing to do so.
During Thursday's hearing, Younus Habib had tendered an unconditional apology for his deeds and had said that he was used by former army chief Baig and former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and subsequently jailed for four years.
He had further revealed that, due to pressure from the "higher-ups", he had arranged for Rs1.48 billion out of which Rs140 million were distributed among political parties while the rest were invested in army welfare schemes and transferred to account numbers provided by ISI officials on the
directives of Baig.
Asghar Khan's petition, filed in 1996, had requested the court to look into allegations that the ISI had provided Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad to harm Benazir Bhutto's election campaign.