Nawaz to submit response in Asghar Khan case: sources
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ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to submit a response in the Asghar Khan case, sources informed on Wednesday.
Earlier, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar directed 31 respondents, including Nawaz Sharif and Javed Hashmi, in the Asghar Khan case to submit written replies by June 9 (Saturday).
The sources have confirmed that Barrister Munawar Iqbal Duggal will represent the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader in the case.
On June 2, the Supreme Court had issued notices to Nawaz and senior politician Javed Hashmi as well as 19 other civilians named in the case to appear before it on Tuesday.
Nawaz did not appear before the court.
Attorney General told the court: "Nawaz Sharif will be represented by his lawyer, said attorney general, adding that former premier is looking for a legal counsel to represent him."
The court granted time to Nawaz Sharif to seek a legal counsel in the case.
Asghar Khan case
On October 19, 2012, the apex court had issued a 141-page verdict, ordering legal proceedings against Gen (retd) Beg and Lt Gen (retd) 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.
That investigation is yet to conclude.
AP
