Karachi affair

[1] In 1992, the Benazir administration began negotiating with French President François Mitterrand to procure the designs for the expensive and complex submarine, eventually signing the contract in 1994 for a sum equivalent to €826 million ($996m).

[2] Negotiations and the decision-making for defense procurement with France was extremely controversial, with the United Kingdom later entering in the competition by offering its four Upholder-class submarines, which were being decommissioned from the military service with the Royal Navy.

: 149–150 [3] The Pakistan Navy NHQ wanted to procure the four used British-manufactured diesel-electric Upholder-class submarines, which were already available and at a lesser cost than newly build Agostas, which were still in the prototype phase, and would have taken years to manufacture and deliver.

[11][12] This theory was rejected by the Government of Pakistan when the FIA and the CID made potential discovery in linking the HuM and the al-Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attack in Karachi, mistaking the French nationals for the Americans.

: 75 [20]: contents [21] Eventually, Pakistan entered in negotiation with France over the procurement of the Agosta-90Bravo submarines after the French designer, the DCNS, presented the Agosta 90B prototype in 1992.: 476 [15] At this time, the personal connections between Chief of Naval Staff Admiral S. M. Khan and British First Sea Lord Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald resulted in the British government selling the Type 21 frigates to Pakistan in 1993–94.

[27] This policy was intended to "convince" political leaders and military officials, but such practices were declared illegal in France until the signing of the OECD Convention against Corruption in 2000.

[27] The French state-owned consortium, the SOFEMA, channeled money to political and military officials through front companies and individuals in Pakistan and France.

Alvi who confirmed his contacts with Zafar Iqbal, a defence contractor, and accepted "receiving millions of € and R$ in the briefcase(s)" only to be handed over to the interested military and political figures.

[31] In 1997, the scandal was eventually exposed in the news media by director of naval intelligence, Rear-Admiral Tanvir Ahmed when he authorized a second sting operation that the arrests of several high ranking admirals in the Navy, and Cdre.

Ashraf who had departed to the United Kingdom to attend the war course at the Royal College of Defence Studies in Great Britain, was eventually recalled to face the court-martial.

: 213 [2][33] In 1999–2005, there were several indictments and convictions held against civilian contractors and politicians by the courts in Pakistan in light of the inquiries conducted by the NAB and the FIA who were able to recover the large sum of amount into national treasury through the plea bargains.

: 16 [34]: 42 [35][36] Major allegations were also directed towards the senior ranking army generals who played a crucial role in covering-up other defence deals with France and Ukraine when Agosta commission case was exposed in 2000–03 to prevent tarnishing the further image of the military in the public.

[40] The French courts eventually opened the inquiries and founded that the large part of the commission was used to finance the presidential campaign of Edouard Balladur in 1995.

The French engineers were working with their Pakistani counterparts to assemble the machined parts of the Agosta 90Bravo submarines in Naval Dockyard in Karachi[49] Initial blames were put on the Indian branch of al-Qaeda, and later Pakistani crime-scene investigators linked it with HuM operatives who later confessed that the attacks were supposed to target the Americans but mistakenly attacked the French nationals.

[13][14] The European media later placed the blame on the Pakistani military who orchestrated this attack in retaliation for the cancellation of these commissions— this theory was rejected by the Pakistan MoI after Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider held a televised press conference to release the details of mastermind, Sharib Zubair, arrested on 18 September 2002.

[50] In series of lawsuits filed by the families of French engineers, there were several convictions on many suspected HuM operatives who were either hanged or facing solitary confinement in successive years, though the courts had acquitted three defendants by 2009 due to lack of evidences.

[13][14] In 2013, Mansurul Haq filed a lawsuit against the Government of Pakistan, seeking to restore his military rank and medical pensions, at the Sindh High Court.

[53] The Sindh High Court agreed upon restoring the rank (as former) but not the medical pensions that are enjoyed by the retired four-star officers in the Pakistani military– Haq later died from chronic heart disease in 2018.

[53] In 2002–03, the Navy, NAB, FIA and the Musharraf administration had to sustained strong criticism over the handling of the scandal by the former spies and investigators who served in the Naval Intelligence.

[54] Major allegations also directed towards the Pakistan Army's generals who worked towards with their naval counterparts to cover-up the investigations to prevent maligning the image of the Navy and the military as whole.

[54] In 2011, the News International editorial gave criticism to Fasih Bokhari of quietly closed the case against retired Mansurul Haq when the latter was not found guilty but did not take actions against those naval officers who had received kickbacks including Aftab Shaban Mirani who the Defence Minister involved in the affairs.