ISLAMABAD - 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.
Submitting his written reply in the Supreme Court pertaining to distribution of money among the politicians to influence general elections against PPP, Asad Durrani stated that he had received money from the then Army Chief Mirza Aslam Baig.
The former chief spy 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.
The money was distributed on the behest of former president Ghulam Ishaq Kahn as he had appointed Jalal Haider Zaidi for this purpose.
Durrani claimed that some Rs 70m out of the Rs 140m 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.
