Skip to main content

FIA recommends SC to close Asghar Khan case

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) recommended the Supreme Court to close the case of Asghar Khan
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday recommended the Supreme Court to close the case filed by the late air chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan.

The FIA submitted a report in the SC today which stated that there is "not enough evidence to continue investigating" the case.

“There are contradictions in the statements of the witnesses,” the report said.

Furthermore, the report stated that the case is more than 25 years old and no record of bank transactions could be found.

"Politicians who were accused of taking money have also denied the allegations," it further read.

A day earlier, the apex court announced that it will hear on December 31 (Monday) the case of the former air chief pertaining to the distribution of Rs 140 million among political parties ahead of the 1990 general elections.

The case

On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court issued a 141-page verdict, ordering legal proceedings against Gen (retd) Aslam Beg and Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani in a case filed 16 years ago by former air chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan.

Khan, who passed away in January this year, was represented in the Supreme Court by renowned lawyer Salman Akram Raja.

Khan had petitioned the Supreme Court in 1996 alleging that the two senior army officers and the then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had doled out Rs140 million among several politicians ahead of the 1990 polls to ensure Benazir Bhutto's defeat in the polls.

The Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), consisting of nine parties including the Pakistan Muslim League, National Peoples Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, had won the 1990 elections, with Nawaz Sharif being elected prime minister. The alliance had been formed to oppose the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party.

In 1996, Khan had written a letter to the then Supreme Court Chief Justice Nasim Hassan Shah naming Beg, Durrani and Younis Habib, the ex-Habib Bank Sindh chief and owner of Mehran Bank, about the unlawful disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes.

The 2012 apex court judgment, authored by the then-Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, had directed the Federal Investigation Agency to initiate a transparent investigation and subsequent trial if sufficient evidence is found against the former army officers.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Death toll in Indonesia quake-tsunami tops 800

The death toll from a powerful earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia leapt to 832 Sunday, as stunned people on the stricken island of Sulawesi struggled to find food and water and looting spread. The new toll announced by the national disaster agency was almost double the previous figure. Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the final number of dead could be in the "thousands." "It feels very tense," said 35-year-old mother Risa Kusuma, comforting her feverish baby boy at an evacuation centre in the gutted coastal city of Palu. "Every minute an ambulance brings in bodies. Clean water is scarce. The minimarkets are looted everywhere." Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday broadcast footage from a coastal community in Donggala, close to the epicentre of the quake, where some waterfront homes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higher ground after the quake struck. "When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills," a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

PM Khan had ended tolerance for corruption: Fawad Chudry

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday asserted that all state institutions stand by Prime Minister Imran Khan and are working together to lead the country toward development. While talking to journalists, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that before Khan came to power, every politician thought that “corruption was their right”. However, PM Khan had ended tolerance for corruption after he assumed office, Chaudhry claimed. When people do not have money to buy medicines then how can a prime minister live lavishly?” said Fawad Chaudhry. “They [the previous government] had ordered cars worth Rs980 million for one SAARC conference,” Chaudhry said, adding that the maintenance expenditure of the cars amounted to Rs350m. He said that previous governments had left the country up to its eyeballs in debt by spending huge amounts of money on extravagance. The new premier was trying to repay this debt. He further said that the budget allocated to state institutions like Pakist...
Post a Comment
Read more

Czech Republic footballer Josef Sural killed in auto crash in Turkey

Czech Republic international Josef Sural was killed and six other Alanyaspor players were injured Monday when their van crashed on the way home from a Turkish league soccer match. The 28-year-old Sural died in the hospital during emergency surgery, The six other players were reported to be in stable condition. Cavusoglu said Sural and his six teammates hired a private luxury van to return from a game at Kayserispor in central Turkey. The crash occurred near the entrance to the town of Alanya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Cavusoglu said the driver of the van was being questioned by police. “Our pain is huge,” Cavusoglu said. State-run Anadolu Agency said the van veered off the road and overturned. It identified the injured players as Wanderson Baiano, Steven Caulker, Isaac Sackey, Papiss Demba Cisse, Welinton Souza and Djalma Campos. He said Sural’s wife rushed to the hospital where he informed her of the player’s death. Sural had two young daughters, he said. Sural, a forw...
Post a Comment
Read more