Home »Top Stories » Supreme Court absolves army – terms Beg’s, Durrani’s roles individuals’ acts

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  • Nov 9th, 2012
  • Comments Off on Supreme Court absolves army – terms Beg’s, Durrani’s roles individuals’ acts
The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday issued a 141-page detailed judgement in the 16-year-old pending Asghar Khan case on the manipulation of 1990 general election. The Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain briefed the media on the verdict which ruled that the 1990 elections were rigged and that the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the then CoAS, Aslam Beg, and the then DG ISI, Asad Durrani, violated the constitution.

The detailed order, which has been authored by Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, notes that the two army officials acted alone and observed that "any violation of the oath of office or any other illegal act committed by a state functionary is a personal act for which the individual concerned would be liable in accordance with law. And the institution to which such individual may belong would not be involved in it in any way." The six lakh army therefore was held to be innocent of the crimes of the then CoAS and the then DG ISI.

The court also ruled that any illegal order if transmitted is "not worthy to be obeyed. Compliance of an illegal or incompetent direction/order can neither be justified on the plea that it came from a superior authority nor could it be defended on the ground that its non-compliance would have exposed the concerned government servant to the risk of disciplinary action." The President as head of state must not engage in politics and a political cell in the presidency is illegal, the detailed judgement maintained. The order further noted in the second last para, which was not noted in the short order, that notices have been issued to publishers, printers and reporters, DG, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Attorney General in two weeks time based on reports that an amount of Rs 270 million was doled out of IB accounts for the purpose of toppling of the Government of Punjab in the year 2008-09.

The three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, announced a short order on 29 October, accusing the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) of distributing Rs 60 million among IJI politicians to manipulate the general election of 1990 and ensure the electoral defeat of Benazir Bhutto-led PPP. In the order, the recipients of money in Punjab include PML (N) Nawaz Sharif, Rs 3.5million; Lieutenant General Rafaqat (Retd), Rs 5.6 million; JI, Rs 5 million; Abida Hussain, Rs 01 million; Altaf Hussain Qureshi and Mustafa Sadiq, Rs 0.5 million; Misc. and smaller group Rs 3.339 million; NWFP: (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) includes Mir Afzal Rs 10 million; Sindh: Jatoi Rs 5 million; Jam Sadiq Rs 5 million; Junejo Rs 2.5 million; Pir Pagara Rs 2 million; Maulana Salah-Ud-Din Rs 0.3 million; Misc. and smaller groups Rs 5.4 million; Balochistan: Humayun Marri Rs 1.5 million; Jamali Rs 4 million; Kakar Rs 1 million; K Baluch Rs 0.5 million; Jam Yousaf Rs 0.75 million; Bazinjo Rs 0.50 million; Nadeem Mengal Rs one million and through [may be] Golf course Rs 0.5 million, Misc.(bank charges, expenses etc) Rs 1.1117 million.

The court ruled legal proceedings against the recipients of the money as well as against Younus Habib and directed the relevant authorities to ensure the recovery of the money with interest. The court ruled that an amount of Rs 80 million deposited in Account No 313 titled Survey and Construction Group Karachi maintained by Military Intelligence (MI) with profit be transferred to Habib Bank Ltd and if the liability of HBL has not been adjusted the same maybe deposited in the treasury. The order said, "the instant human rights case stands disposed of in the above terms".

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012


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