Asghar Khan, the Supreme Court and Ardeshir Cowasjee

You have read the talking heads and news reports talk about NOT receiving funds from the government of the day. Air Marshal Asghar Khan's letter to the Supreme Court was converted into a suo moto notice way back. Curmudgeon Ardeshir Cowasjee has written many columns on this issue but the Supreme Court in its wisdom has ignored it.

Ask yourself why. Notice the dates, and again ask yourself why?

We never learn from history–10 (September 2, 2007)
We never learn from history-8 (August 19, 2007)
We never learn from history-7 (August 12, 2007)
We never learn from history-6 (August 5, 2007)
We never learn from history-6 (Oct 31, 2004)
We never learn from history-5 (Aug 25, 2002)
We never learn from history-4 (Aug 18, 2002)

Last week, I was reminded by General Naseerullah Babar that I had ommitted certain names from the list of those 'anti-PPP politicians' who received payments from the ISI during the run-up to the 1990 elections rigged in favour of the IJI and Nawaz Sharif. These were: Jamaat-i-Islami Rs 5 million; Altaf Hussain Qureshi and Mustafa Sadiq Rs 0.5 million; Arbab Ghulam Aftab Rs 0.3 million; Pir Noor Mohammad Shah Rs 0.3 million; Arbab Faiz Mohammad Rs 0.3 million; Arbab Ghulam Habib Rs 0.2 million; Ismail Rahu Rs 0.2 million; Liaquat Baloch Rs 1.5 million; Jam Yusuf Rs 0.75 million; Nadir Magsi Rs 1 million; Ghulam Ali Nizamani Rs 0.3 million; Ali Akbar Nizamani Rs 0.3 million. Yet more payments: During the Mehrangate investigations of 1993 which led up to the Supreme Court case, Younas Habib of HBL/MBL, as per his statement filed in court (recorded in Karachi under section 161 Cr.P.C), disclosed that the following political and other pay-offs were made between 1991 and 1994: "General Mirza Aslam Beg Rs 140 million; Jam Sadiq Ali (the then chief minister of Sindh) Rs 70 million; Altaf Hussain (MQM) Rs 20 million, Advocate Yousaf Memon ( for disbursement to Javed Hashmi, MNA, and others) Rs.50 million; 1992 - Jam Sadiq Ali Rs 150 million; 1993 - Liaquat Jatoi Rs .01 million; 1993 - chief minister of Sindh, through Imtiaz Sheikh Rs 12 million; Afaq of the MQM Rs 0.5 million; 1993 chief minister of Sindh, through Imtiaz Sheikh, Rs. 01. million; 1993 - Ajmal Khan, a former federal minister, Rs 1.4 million; 1993 - Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister, Rs 3.5 million; 27/9/93 Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister, Rs 2.5 million; 26/9/93 Jam Mashooq Rs 0.5 million; 26/9/93 Dost Mohammad Faizi Rs 1 million; Jam Haider Rs 2 million; Jam Mashooq Rs 3 million; Adnan, son of Sartaj Aziz, Rs 1 million; Nawaz Sharif and Ittefaq Group of Companies Rs 200 million (photocopies of cheques and deposit slips, etc, already attached with affidavit at page nos. 42 to 73); Sardar Farooq Leghari 12/12/93 (payment set/off) Rs 30 million - 6/1/94 Rs 2.0856 million - 19/3/94 Rs 1.92 million." We never learn from history-3 (Aug 11, 2002)


The "host of other political figures who received funds" from an ISI account were revealed in the Supreme Court when Air Marshal Asghar Khan's petition was being heard. Inter alia, Nawaz Sharif received (in rupees) 3.5 million, Lt General Rafaqat [GIK's election cell] 5.6 million, Mir Afzal 10 million, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi 5 million, Jam Sadiq Ali 5 million, Mohammed Khan Junejo 2.5 million, Pir Pagaro 2 million, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada 3 million, Yusuf Haroon 5 million [he confirms having received this for Altaf Hussain of the MQM], Muzaffar Hussain Shah 0.3 million, Abida Hussain 1 million, Humayun Marri 5.4 million. During the hearing of the case, Aslam Beg, under oath, revealed the existence of a political cell within the ISI, whilst clarifying that though he was aware of the distribution of funds he was never personally involved. We never learn from history-2 (Aug 04, 2002)
We never learn from history (July 21, 2002)

Read yhe rest here Judiciary

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Thursday categorically denied allegations of accepting money from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the 1990 election campaign of Islami Jamhuri Ittehad (IJI) terming it as part of conspiracy to malign political parties and saving former President Pervez Musharraf from trial under Article 6 of the Constitution. Liar liar pants on fire.