A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC), hearing Asghar Khan case, gave a go-ahead to make President Asif Ali Zardari a defendant in the case and issued him a notice for the purpose.
Heading the bench, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry said there should be no political activities at the President House, as president of the country is a constitutional head and supreme commander of the state.
The bench also expressed displeasure over the absence of Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir.
Meantime, the court, granting the plea by Asghar Khan’s counsel Salman Akram Raja, made President Asif Ali Zardari a respondent in the case regarding political funding by the ISI in the run up to 1990 elections.
The court has issued a notice to President Zardari through his Principal Secretary.
The hearing has been adjourned till October 15.
The role of the spy agencies in Pakistan’s politics, as indicated by the Asghar Khan case, did not allow the political process to unfold naturally through free, fair and consistent elections. The trail of the ISI’s role leading to the presidency does offer an opportunity to clear the air, prevent political cells operating within the intelligence agencies and presidency, if they are found to exist still, and cleanse the Augean stables of manipulated political processes that bear little resemblance to a credible and clean democratic system.
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