Islamabad, May 17 (ANI): Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Asad Durrani has admitted that the ISI and Military Intelligence (MI) had played their respective roles in rigging the 1990 parliamentary elections.
"The decision to disburse election donations through the ISI may well have been taken by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who, having handpicked the caretaker government including its Prime Minister Mustafa Jatoi, was de-facto the chief executive. The operation was therefore lawful and it followed an established chain of command," The Express Tribune quoted Durrani, as saying.
Durrani had submitted a counter affidavit in response to former army chief General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg's statement in which he blamed the ISI for 'corrupt practices'.
Beg had filed a fresh statement on May 10 wherein he had tried to absolve himself of any involvement in the distribution of funds to various recipients. Durrani said "to put the record straight: General Mirza Aslam Beg, as the army chief, was right from the beginning on board in this operation; both in the process of issuing instructions, as well as overseeing the disbursements."
"All accounts were maintained by officers belonging to the various MI detachments, and funds were placed in temporary accounts and the details can be provided on a confidential basis. Only after the disbursements were over, the balance was transferred to a special fund of the ISI," Durrani said.
Durrani, establishing the origins of his orders with then Presiden Ishaq Khan, said, "in fact, I received my initial orders to organise distribution of election donations (through president Ishaq Khan). Though the subsequent instructions were at times conveyed by Ijlal Haider Zaidi, a member of the president's election team, I kept the army chief fully informed." (ANI)
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