1990 elections were rigged, rules SC

[Hyde]

According to my understanding of English; Bribery is giving money in order to gain an advantage. On the other hand graft is the personal gain or advantage earned by an individual at the expense of others or as a result of the exploitation of the singular status. These are opposite sides of the same coin.

The wording is “if sufficient evidence is collected against them they shall be sent up to face the trial”. It has been established that a crime was committed; bot the parties were named in the petition. This is very strange that the people who paid the bribe are all named but SC conveniently omitted names of the people who accepted the bribe!

I am not very intelligent and cannot grasp subtleties. To my simple mind, if there are two parties involved, both are equally guilty. Deliberate omission of the receivers of graft shows that SC remains partial to Nawaz Sharif as he is one of main beneficiary who are alive today.

Full names of the politicians that took the graft are listed by Honourable Leader in another Thread. Suffice to say that Nawaz Sharif accepted 35 lakh rupees.

P.S. Money was not pocketed by Aslam Baig or Durrani or Younus Habib. The funds were distributed. Unless you name the receivers and institute proceeding against the dishonest politicians, how can you recover the funds?

If I understood the case correctly, the situation is rather like this

There are two parties, one who claims that they distributed money to politicians, second who claims that they did not receive any money. Party A (General Asad Durrani and Baig) confessed in the courts that they played a key role in distributing the money to politicians and literally rigging in the elections. They did not deny these charges hence it was easier to convict them. On the other hand, those who received money denied about their involvement about the case.

The Supreme Court is not a trial court hence the entire case was supposed to be shifted to lower courts so if they are convicted by the trial court, they would have a right of appeal in the upper courts. If the Supreme herself would have convicted them, there was not any court where they could lodge an appeal against it. Secondly the key petitioner (Asghar Khan) had only named two Generals in his petition and was not interested in bringing the politicians in his case to further prolong it. The only other person added in the petition was the former President Ishaq Khan after the request of Asghar Khan. The CJ at one moment did ask him to make the political parties part of the petition but he refused it by saying that he wants the constitutional interpretation upon the acts of the former generals and the judgement based upon the evidences he has gathered and those who received the money could be convicted later after the interpretation of the constitution is made by the court.

Now it is the time when the political parties will be interrogated/questioned and the case against them will be lodged in the trial courts. The Supreme Court already did her job by interpreting the constitution howsoever they deemed appropriate, There was no soft corner by the CJ for NS as he is now going to be interrogated by the FIA and he will have to answer the allegations made against him and most likely be convicted by the trial court.

 

[iioal malik]

Javed hashmi took 50 million..SO meaning only altaf bahi have rejected the money,HAHAHA biggest joke of the century

 

[Edevelop]

Pakistani siasat sar-peed hain...

 

[Thorough Pro]

A verdict after 23 for an even which can not be undone belongs in some human orfices. What is the point of this verdict now? create more chaos in already worsening conditions.

ISLAMABAD:The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Asghar Khan petition was admissible for regular hearing and ordered the government to take legal action against former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg and the ISI’s former director general Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani.


A three-judge bench comprising the chief justice, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain issued the short order after hearing a petition filed in 1996 by Khan requesting the court to look into allegations that the ISI had financed many politicians in the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and stop Benazir Bhutto’s PPP from coming to power. The petition was based on an affidavit of the ISI’s former director general Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani.

The Supreme Court in its short order ruled that there was ample evidence to suggest that the 1990 elections were rigged and that a political cell maintained by the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan supported the formation of the IJI to stop the PPP’s government from coming into power.

The apex court moreover ruled that political cells of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and President House should be abolished and ordered the government to take legal action against the former retired generals who were involved in the corruption as well as against Younus Habib, former president of the now defunct Mehran Bank.

The court further ordered that money that was illegally disbursed among the politicians by the then president and the ISI should be recovered and deposited in the Habib Bank along with the accumulated interest on it. Adding to that, the short order said that legal action should also be taken against the politicians who received the money.

The ruling further said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should investigate into the matter.

Moreover, the Supreme Court, in its interpretation of the Constitution, said that political activism was not the domain of the military and the intelligence agencies. Their job is to cooperate with the government, the judgment said.
1990 elections were rigged, rules SC | DAWN.COM