Justice Kayani recuses himself from hearing ex-ISI chief’s case | The Express Tribune

Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani’s case took a new turn on Friday after Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) recused himself from further hearing the case.

Justice Kayani remarked that he had all the information regarding the case’s background and was also close to penning the verdict, but was forwarding the case to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

“It is unfortunate, but there are reasons for that I cannot tell,” he said while explaining his withdrawal from the case.

He said, “the [IHC] chief justice will form a new bench to hear the case.”

In its written reply submitted with the IHC, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), at the last hearing, stated that former ISI chief Durrani had been interacting with “hostile elements specially Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) since 2008”.

Also read: IHC seeks replies from GHQ, interior ministry in Asad Durrani case

His name was added to the Exit Control List (ECL) for anti-state activities.

Earlier in January, the MoD opposed an application seeking the removal of the ex-ISI chief’s name from the no-fly list.

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.

The ministry said that Durrani had been a part of the Pakistan Army for 32 years and had worked on key and sensitive positions.

It further said that the former ISI chief had been interacting with hostile elements, especially RAW since 2008.

The ministry maintained that the inquiry against Durrani was in the final phase saying, “at this stage his name could not be removed from the no-fly list”.

The ministry said that the book was reviewed from the security angle and according to the inquiry board its content was against the interests of Pakistan.