Rehman Malik appears before committee probing Asghar Khan case: sources

 

ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister Rehman Malik on Friday appeared before an investigation committee formed to probe into the Asghar Khan case. 

Won't tolerate further delay in Asghar Khan case, remarks CJP

A three-member bench of the apex court’s Lahore Registry, headed by Chief Justice Nisar, resumed the hearing

On June 11, Malik along with Imtiaz Sheikh and Younus Habib had refused to appear before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in relation to the Asghar Khan case after being summoned by the security agency. Sources had said Malik told FIA officials on the phone that he is trying to save himself from the media, which is why he didn’t appear in the case.

Additional Director General FIA Ahsan Sadiq is heading the committee.

According to sources, Malik has shared the committee about the case's background. He has also shared incidents relevant to the investigation. 

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.

The investigation is yet to conclude.