Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Friday recused himself from further hearings in the case of former spymaster Lt Gen (r) Mohammad Asad Durrani regarding the former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL).
“It is unfortunate, but there are reasons for that I cannot tell,” he said while explaining his withdrawal from the case, adding that he knew the “whole background” of the case and had reached the stage of writing down his verdict.
He said: “the [IHC] chief justice will form a new bench to hear the case.”
Durrani landed in trouble after co-authoring a book titled “The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace” with former RAW chief AS Dulat in 2018. In his petition, Gen Durrani claimed that the government had put his name on the ECL in connection with an inquiry related to a book he co-authored.
Last month, the defence ministry through its response had opposed the removal of Durrani’s name from the ECL, informing the court it had evidence suggesting that the former spymaster remained in contact with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
The ministry further stated that Durrani had been a part of the Pakistan Army for 32 years and had worked in key and sensitive positions.
While noting that Durrani had remained part of the army for 32 years and served on important and sensitive positions, the ministry said: “it was inappropriate of his stature to co-author a book that too with [an] ex-Indian RAW chief and Indian journalist on matters concerning the national security of the country”.
Last year, the IHC had reserved its verdict on a plea seeking removal of the former spymaster from the ECL, wherein Justice Kayani heard the case.
A representative of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Brigadier Falak Naz had submitted a sealed inquiry report to the court. The inquiry was conducted on the former spymaster’s writing a book along with a former Indian spy agency chief AS Dulat.
Justice Kayani had read the report and returned it to the representative of the ministry.
Brig Naz had apprised the court that inquiry against Asad Durrani had been completed, which included recommendations for not removing Asad Durrani’s name from the ECL.
The counsel of the former-ISI chief, Umer Farrukh Adam, had asked the court at the time if it would court-martial his client for writing a book. In reply, Kayani had said there was no such thing in the report.
Umer Farrukh Adam had also said his client had retired from his post in 1993, while he wrote the book on the basis of analysis in 2018. He had maintained there was nothing wrong with this as former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf had also written a book.
Durrani had been summoned to Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in May 2018, where he was asked to explain his position on views attributed to him in the book, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had confirmed in a statement last year.
Durrani has been found guilty of violating the military code of conduct after he co-authored the book, the ISPR had said in 2019, adding that “his pension and other benefits have been stopped”.
