Probe against recipients of ISI money

The track record of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party implementing courts orders has not been good as it invariably falters because of expediencies. The latest of the examples is the Supreme Court verdict in the petition of Air Marshal Asghar Khan which held that the ISI distributed as much as Rs140 million for the making of Islamic Democratic Alliance before the 1990 parliamentary elections to prevent Benazir Bhutto from being re-elected. The SC also held that 1990 elections were so massively rigged as to enable the Islamic parties’ conglomerate to win a “heavy mandate” to even amend the constitution as and when required. The court directed the government to get the affair of distribution of ISI money among recipients investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). But political expediencies that include the next parliamentary elections only weeks away prevented the PPP-led government to implement the SC order. Now that about two months have gone since the SC verdict was proclaimed, the FIA in itself has decided to proceed. It has written a letter to the Law Ministry seeking its legal opinion regarding the Supreme Court’s direction to it on initiating criminal proceedings against the recipients of the ISI money. The FIA wrote the letter when the law ministry failed to clarify an action. The FIA wants to know how to initiate proceedings against the politicians as well as former army officers. Many army officers including the former chief of army staff Mirza Alsm Baig and ISI director-general Asad Durrani, who are also involved the massive political scam and the SC wants them to be punished. It is a matter of record that the ISI doled out Rs50 million to the Jamaat-i-Islami and Rs3.5 million to PML-N chief Mr Nawaz Sharif. Other recipients include the former caretaker prime minister the late Malik Meraj Khalid, Barrister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and former Punjab governor and chief minister Malik Ghulam Mustafa. Always in power corridors Syeda Abida Husain also chipped in with a small share of the booty. One wonders why the PPP government seems uninterested in initiating proceedings against distributors and recipients of the public money and those who conspired against its return to power in 1990. The statement of Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah on December 6 that the government might not act upon the court’s decision in the Asghar Khan case, coming after 16 years of the filing of his petition, which “stands buried”, is particularly striking in the sense that it tends to expose the PML-N for others to assess whether it is a genuine rival or a “friendly opposition”. The FIA has a bonafide locus standi in the light of the SC decision to take up the probe but since the law ministry has not responded, it has rightly routed its concern to the law ministry; it cannot wait for an to indefinite period. This is a correct move because the government is no mood to take the initiative, unnecessarily using delaying tactics, and placing the agency in an awkward position because it is answerable to the apex court. Since the court has ordained investigation of the takers of money, the FIA has first to lodge FIRs against them. It will be followed by their arrest and other legal proceedings before they are penalized. The maximum punishment that can be awarded is seven years in prison with or without fine or both. As for Mirza Aslam Baig, Asad Durrani and other men from army, they can be either be court martialled or dealt under Section 5 of the FIA 1974 Act. One reason why the federal government is not proceeding in the matter may be that the SC also made adverse observation on politicizing the office of the head of the state. It has since moved a review petition for the remarks to be expunged. But this is hardly an excuse not to implement other parts of the verdict. If the people in the ISI and from political parties are penalized for manipulating a whole of electoral exercise, it will certainly not only consolidate democracy but also deter elements who have been and continue to conspire against a sustainable democratic order. The government is, thus, obliged to whip up its political will.