Tuesday, 01 Sep, 2009


Attorney-General Pakistan Sardar Latif Khosa. — Photo by APP

ISLAMABAD: Attorney-General Sardar Latif Khosa on Monday took a stand diametrically opposed to a demand made by an official of his party and said that requesting the Supreme Court to reopen proceedings on Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan’s letter regarding money paid to politicians would mean flogging a dead horse.

‘We are neither in a hurry nor demanded so, rather whatever the party’s information secretary has said was a viewpoint like the one forwarded by PML-N central information secretary Ahsan Iqbal on the issue,’ Sardar Khosa said when reporters sought his opinion on the ongoing political war of words.

‘It is for the Supreme Court to take up the case again whenever the court deems it appropriate,’ he said.

Former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had initiated proceedings on a letter written to him by the air marshal citing a July 1994 affidavit by former ISI chief Gen (retd) Asad Durrani about payments made by the intelligence agency to some politicians for dislodging the PPP government in 1992.

According to the affidavit, Rs10 million was paid to Mir Afzal in the NWFP, Rs3.5 million to Mian Nawaz Sharif, Rs5.6 million to Lt-Gen (retd) Rafaqat (for publicity purpose), Rs5 million to Jamaat-i-Islami, Rs1 million to Begum Abida Hussain, Rs500,000 to Mustafa Sadiq and Altaf Hussain Qureshi, Rs5 million to Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Rs5 million to Jam Sadiq, Rs2.5 million to Mohammad Khan Junejo and Rs2 million to Pir Pagara.

Former chief justices Sajjad Ali Shah and Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui heard the case until it was adjourned and has not been reopened since.