The sons of former DG ISI General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, whose name was included in the data leak of Credit Suisse on Monday, have denied their father had any accounts as claimed by the foreign journalists in their expose.
Former senator Haroon Akhtar Khan, who served in PML-N cabinet when Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was prime minister, was quoted in Dawn as saying “these accounts do not exist”.
As Aaj Digital wrote on Monday, Rahman served as DG ISI during Gen Zia ul Haq's rule and played a key role in US interventions in Afghanistan in backing anti-Soviet mujahideen in the late 1970s.
The leaked information was provided to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The paper then shared it with Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative centers, media and journalists, and 46 other media partners around the world.
The report gave reference of heavy US and Saudi funding during the Soviet war, saying Akhtar's Credit Suisse accounts were opened by the mid-1980s in the names of his three sons. "Akhtar was adept at getting CIA cash into the hands of Afghan jihadists," read the report into investigation of leaked accounts.
Former senator Haroon's brother, who did not want to be named, told Dawn "that none of the countries that funded the war in Afghanistan had ever accused his late father of misappropriation."
According to the details of the bank accounts and money in it, the report stated: "One of the two Akhtar family accounts at Credit Suisse — held jointly by Akhtar’s sons Akbar, Ghazi, and Haroon — was opened on July 1, 1985, when the sons were in their late 20s and early 30s.
Since the story broke on Monday, social media has been abuzz about General Akhtar's name in the leak.
Independent MNA Mohsin Dawar tweeted on the importance of accountability then and now.
Historian Ammar Ali Jan called for an investigation in to charges of corruption.
One user expressed surprise at peoples' surprise on the news.
While journalist Shama Junejo noted that the names to come out of Suisse data leak belonged to the military and not civilians.
