Pakistan army's former chief Mirza Aslam Beg (centre) leaves the supreme court after being quizzed over allegations that the military funneled money to politicians in the 1990's to influence elections. Photograph: B.K. Bangash/AP
A former chief of Pakistan's spy agency has been forced to admit to spending millions of military dollars to influence an election during a humiliating court hearing that is being seen as a remarkable display of power from the country's top judges.
In extraordinary scenes at the supreme court a visibly embarrassed Asad Durrani said that in 1990 he was ordered by then army chief Mirza Aslam Beg to distribute millions of dollars to politicians and parties to help defeat the Pakistan Peoples party (PPP) government of Benazir Bhutto.
On Thursday Younus Habib, a disgraced former banker who had acted as a middleman, claimed the then president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, had ordered 340m rupees (£10m) be spent on the plan.
Although Pakistanis have long known the outline of the scandal, Durrani's court testimony was a remarkable shaming for a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a military outfit regarded as so powerful that it is sometimes described as a "state within a state".
On Friday Durrani was careful not to implicate the ISI, saying he had only followed orders from Beg.
"I found no election or political cell in the ISI," he said. "But political work could always be done by designated officers and any intelligence agency can undertake this task."
With a parliamentary election due within a year the episode is of more than historical interest.
The action helped to topple a government then controlled by the PPP, which is once again in power. Figures still active in Pakistani politics benefited greatly from the ISI's largesse, including Nawaz Sharif, a conservative politician who went on to win the election.
The embarrassing details of the case came as the ISI announced a successor to Ahmad Shuja Pasha, who will step down as head of the agency later this month.
General Zahir-ul Islam's background will be closely scrutinised, not least by Washington which has long been convinced ISI agents provide the Taliban-led insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan with vital support.
Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani newspaper columnist, said the supreme court case caps a "terrible year for the security structure", coming as it does after a number of humiliating incidents including the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.
"It compounds that sense of siege that some may be feeling," Almeida said. "We are now seeing things that were once only whispered in Pakistan screamed through the electronic media."
Another sign of the army's weakened position in Pakistan was the court theatrics involving Beg.
The former army chief's contempt for proceedings was evident in a written denial that sarcastically claimed his "hattrick" of appearances before the court was "an honour".
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Pakistan's chief justice, reacted furiously demanding an apology which was grudgingly written on a slip of paper by Beg and presented to the court.
Another of the three judges hearing the case warned Beg that the court would not tolerate anyone trying to "play with our dignity".
Such high-profile appearances are yet another coup for Pakistan's increasingly assertive supreme court.
It is also pursuing the prime minister, Yusaf Raza Gilani, over claims he is deliberately blocking a corruption case against his political ally President Asif Ali Zardari.
And last month it further embarrassed the ISI by demanding a group of "disappeared persons" – alleged terrorists who had vanished for years into military detention centres – be brought to the court.
But despite the colourful legal proceedings in Islamabad this week few people are predicting a complete revolution among Pakistan's power brokers.
"It is a remarkable case, but can the influence of an entire security establishment unravel over this particular case?" Almeida said. "That is very unlikely."
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