Asghar Khan petition: decision taken with chain of command connivance: Durrani

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday proposed to former spymaster Asad Durrani to make public the list of those officers who were assigned the job of money distribution among anti-PPP politicians in 1990 election. During the course of hearing, Durrani submitted to the court some classified documents containing the names of those officers who had distributed money.
"We admire your uprightness," Chief Justice told former DG ISI Durrani, asking him why he did not want to disclose the names of those who disbursed a substantial amount of money among anti-PPP politicians 22 years ago. Durrani replied that he had no supportive document to substantiate his claim in relation to disbursement of funds among politicians. According to him, it was a decision that he took with chain of command connivance. The Chief Justice told him that the accused could deny his claim if he was not able to substantiate it in the absence of supportive documents.
The counsel for Asghar Khan, Salman Raja, also requested the bench to disclose the names of officers who distributed money among politicians, but the court turned down his plea. The bench told the former DG ISI that he would be required to furnish that list if asked by the court. Meanwhile, Attorney General for Pakistan Irfan Qadir told the bench that a notification regarding the establishment of political cell in ISI was still untraceable. He said he had also consulted the defence ministry in this regard, but the then defence secretary was replaced with a new one.
The bench asked the incumbent Secretary defence if there is any notification in the ministry on the establishment of ISI political cell then he should submit it before the bench on next date of hearing. Later, the hearing of case was adjourned for four weeks.