Asghar Khan case: Former ISI chief names officials involved in rigging

DAWN.COM

The former chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt-Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani has submitted documents to the Supreme Court, including a list of officers alleged to have illegally distributed money to politicians in the 1990 elections. A three member bench of the SC, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, has taken up a 1996 petition of Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan who accused the ISI of financing politicians in the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and prevent Benazir Bhutto’s PPP from winning the polls. Durrani was asked by the court to submit the list he had promised containing the names of ISI officials involved in the operation to substantiate the doling out of funds among different politicians. The former spy chief claims that the names of politicians were obtained from the Presidency through Ijlal Haider Zaidi, a member of then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s election team, while the “donations” were doled out to the politicians at the directions of then Army chief Mirza Aslam Beg. Durrani claimed that 70 out of the Rs 140 million were distributed through him while the remaining amount was submitted to the ISI’s secret funds. Durrani further said that all the officers who had distributed the funds belonged to the Military Intelligence (MI). The apex court is to take up the case again in its next hearing on July 30.