Islamabad, March 9 (IANS) A former Pakistani banker has told the Supreme Court about being forced by former president late Ghulam Ishaq Khan and ex-army chief Aslam Beg to arrange Rs.340 million in the "supreme national interest" as part of their bid to prevent Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) from winning during 1990s.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench is hearing a case in which Pakistan's spy agency Inter-State Services (ISI) has been accused of financing several politicians during the 1990 elections to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and prevent the PPP from winning, the Dawn reported Friday.
The bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez Thursday heard the statement of a wheelchair-bound Younus Habib, who headed the now defunct Mehran Bank.
The bench has taken up the 1996 petition of Tehrik-i-Istiqlal chief Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan accusing the ISI of financing many politicians during the 1990 elections. The ISI allegedly dished out Rs.140 million for the purpose.
The petition was based on the affidavit of former ISI chief Asad Durrani.
"In all, I was asked to arrange Rs.350 million by the former president and the army chief before the 1990 general elections," said Habib while reading out from his affidavit.
On Thursday, the court ordered the defence ministry's director (legal) Mohammad Hussain Shahbaz to submit reports on the working of security and intelligence agencies from 1990 till date.