ISLAMABAD, June 22: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Friday vowed to take to logical conclusion the case involving alleged disbursement of millions among anti-PPP politicians by the political cell of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) before the 1990 general election. He observed that doing so was difficult but not impossible.

The remarks came after Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the three-member bench of the court headed by the chief justice that the notification about the setting up of the ISI’s political cell could not be traced.

The court rejected a request by Commander Shahbaz, who was representing the defence ministry, for holding the proceedings in camera.

Chief Justice Chaudhry instead asked Commander Shahbaz to furnish a copy of the missing notification. Asad Durrani, the-then director-general of the ISI, told the court that of Rs140 million more than Rs60 million was disbursed by the ISI among various politicians and the rest of the amount was deposited in a special account.

He said the first order for disbursement was given by the then-army chief, Gen (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, and the subsequent ones came from the election team of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan that included Ijlal Haider Zaidi and Roedad Khan.

The alleged beneficiaries included PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, former ambassador to the United States Begum Syeda Abida Hussain, former caretaker prime minister Malik Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, former prime minister Muhammad Khan Junejo, former Sindh chief minister Jam Sadiq, Humayun Marri and Lt-Gen Rafaqat.

The Jamaat-i-Islami was also given money. He said that some of the politicians gave receipts and some did not.

The court held that the alleged recipients would be given notices after submission of admissible evidence.

The court asked law secretary if a copy of a report of a commission on Mehrangate scam submitted by Advocate Raja Salman Akram should be considered to be true. The copy had been provided by journalist Hamid Mir and appeared to be genuine as there was no need for him to provide a forged document, observed the court.

The court was informed that Justice (retd) Chaudhry Muhammad Ilyas was contacted by the law ministry, who said the commission on Habib Bank Limited could not complete its inquiry as its period was not extended by the-then law secretary Saqib Nisar, now a judge of the Supreme Court.