PM recorded statement to FIA in Asghar Khan Case: Ch Nisar
Sharif strongly denied accusations that money was taken from the ISI.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday recorded his statement to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Asghar Khan Case informed Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar. According to the statement, Sharif says he has never met former Mehran Bank President Younis Habib and that the allegations of receiving any financial aid are completely baseless as no evidence was found. Sharif strongly denied the accusations that he had taken money from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to prevent Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from winning the polls of the general elections in 1990.
The Federal Minister for Interior informed of the development during a press conference in Islamabad.
Nisar stated that the investigation into the case was moving forward. He stated that the complete details of the case will be brought before the court. Nisar also stated that the statements of other people involved in the case are being recorded as well.
A case was filed by the Retired Air Marshal alleging that country s intelligence agency had provided Rs. 140 million to the politicians in the 1990 s to form the Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJT) in order to prevent PPP from winning the polls of the 1990 general elections. The case has been shrouded in complexities as many former army officers including former ISI Chief General (Retd) Aslam Baig and PM Nawaz Sharif were involved.
Hearing of the case was started in 1996 by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan. A detalied judgement was reached in November 2012 by 3 member bench of SC comprising then Cheif Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain. The decision stated that action should be taken against those involved. The detailed order also stated that the late president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, former army chief General (r) Aslam Beg, and ISI ex-DG General (r) Asad Durrani, acted in violation of the Constitution by helping politicians to secure their success against their opponents in the elections of 1990 for which they received funds from Younis Habib. In light of this decision, a team of FIA had investigated the case under the supervision of then FIA Additional Director General Galib Ali Bandesha, but the inquiry was never completed as the PPP regime during that time lost interest as FIA s development of the case remained slow.
Investigation into the case again picked up in April 2015 with FIA Director General Akbar Khan Hoti forming a joint investigation team (JIT) under the supervision of FIA Additional Director General Khalid Qureshi including FIA Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwer and some other senior directors of FIA as members of the team. The JIT was formed on the orders of Nisar calling the team to finalize the case and speed up the process of the case
During earlier investigation, FIA had also recorded the statements of Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan, former ISI DG Lt-Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani, former banker Younis Habib and former Zonal Chief of HBL Younus Memon.
