ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Tuesday, expressing dissatisfaction over the incumbent DG Intelligence Bureau’s report, directed the IB to provide details of the funds given for political purposes in 1989-90 and 2008-09.

The court expressed dissatisfaction over the report filed by IB Director (Legal) Naveeda regarding distribution of funds and directed her to tell the DG that the reply was not satisfactory. The court also directed the IB DG to provide the details of Rs 3 million given to a journalist during 1989-90. Naveeda said they were trying to trace out the record.
Taking notice of Tariq Lodhi’s absence, the SC asked Naveeda whether they had informed the ex-DG of the court notice. She said Lodhi, who had been appointed Nadra general manager in UK, had been informed of it.
The court issued a notice to Tariq Lodhi about the utilisation of Rs 270 million allegedly drawn by the PPP government from the IB secret funds to topple the Punjab government in 2008-09. The federal finance secretary sent the secret letter regarding withdrawal of money from the IB funds. The court directed the office to keep it in the file.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Cha-udhry, was hearing the suo motu notice regarding withdrawal of the secret IB funds in 1989-1990 and 2008-2009 for political purposes.
The apex court, in its detailed verdict on Asghar Khan’s petition, delinked the suo motu case about the alleged misuse of the IB funds by the federal government for toppling the Punjab government in 2009.
Former IB DG Masood Sharif Khan, who was summoned to give reply to the notice regarding alleged withdrawal of over Rs 100 million from the IB’s secret funds in 1989-1990 when a no-confidence motion was tabled against the then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, told the court that he received the notice on December 28, but he was abroad that time. “I got the impression that I have to file reply after the incumbent DG,” he added. The court asked him to file reply as an order had been passed in that regard.
The ex-DG said that 25 years had passed and the record was with the IB office that would not allow him to see it now, adding he could file the reply on the basis of his memory. He pointed out that he was a joint director that time and not the DG when funds were drawn from the IB.
Masood Sharif also said that in 1990, when Ghulam Ishaq Khan was the president of Pakistan in February 1992, he appeared before an accountability court in a case in which all the issues were taken into account. “I don’t know the fate of that case,” he said. The court directed him to give his statement in writing.
Asad Kharal, a reporter of an English daily, told the court that Malik Allah Yar, brother-in-law of Farooq Leghari, received Rs 180 million during 1995. The court directed him to furnish the evidence of it. The case was adjourned till January 23, 2013.