The Supreme Court on Saturday issued notices to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg and former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) DG Lieutenant General Asad Durrani in the Asghar Khan case.
The three respondents along with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general and the Attorney General of Pakistan have been asked to appear before the court on Wednesday (August 15). A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will hear the case.
On June 2, the Supreme Court had issued notices to Nawaz and veteran politician Javed Hashmi as well as 19 others named in the case to appear before it.
In a reply submitted on June 9, Sharif denied allegations that he received Rs3.5 million for his 1990 election campaign.
In its October 19, 2012, verdict, the Supreme Court had ordered legal proceedings to be initiated against Gen (retd) Beg and Lt Gen (retd) Durrani for the engineering of the outcome of 1990 general elections. The issue was raised in a case filed by former Air Chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan who maintained that the two officers colluded to cobble up an Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) against the Pakistan Peoples Party, and they doled out funds for IJI candidates’ campaigns in the 1990 general election. Asghar Khan, who passed away in January this year, was represented in the Supreme Court by Advocate Salman Akram Raja.
Published in Daily Times, August 12th 2018.
