Sultan will appear before a three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez who shall hear the petition, filed by Air Marshal Asghar Khan (Retd) some 16 years ago against distribution of substantial amount from national kitty by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to manipulate general elections of 1990. Former Army Chief Mirza Aslam Baig, former ISI chief Lieutenant General Asad Durrani (Retd) and Younis Habib of Habib and Mehran Banks were made respondents in the petition.
During adjudication of the case, the bench took notice of a article, published in an English daily last month unfolding that present regime of the PPP withdrew Rs 270 million from IB's secret fund for influencing loyalties of the members of the Punjab Assembly in 2009 to ultimately topple the provincial government.
The reporter and the editor of the paper were summoned by the court who apprised the bench that they stood by the news. After hearing both reporter and the editor on March 31 the Chief Justice Chaudhry noted that 16 days have passed after the publication of the article, but no contradiction was issued by the IB, which he added indicated prima facie the veracity of the news item.
The same day the IB chief was summoned to explain the utilisation of Rs 270 million and he submitted that no clue was there in the record relating to withdrawal of the amount saying disbursement of any amount from the secret fund and the purpose of its usage did not exit in writing form.
However, he informed the bench that audit report about the release of the fund of Rs 270 million was made available to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he sought time to apprise the court in-camera about all the information in relation to disbursed amount of Rs 270 million. Two respondents of the case Lieutenant General Asad Durrani (Retd) and Younas Habib would be represented in the court by their counsels Khalid Ranja and Munir Paracha respectively.