Islamabad: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that the government would hold a transparent investigation in accordance with a Supreme Court verdict into distribution of public money among politicians in the 1990 general elections in Pakistan.

Speaking to the media after the court announced the verdict on Friday, the prime minister said the findings of the investigation would be made public and every penny doled out to the politicians would be recovered.

The court ruled that the 1990 elections were rigged and held late president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, former army chief General Mirza Aslam Baig and former chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-General Asad Durrani responsible.

Although the generals have now retired, the federal government said it will “take the necessary steps under the constitution and law against them”. Ashraf said that the verdict of apex court would have far-reaching implications, adding that it vindicates the stand of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

“Since the 1990 general elections, when public funds were used to snatch victory from the PPP, the late Benazir Bhutto [the former prime minister and founder of the PPP who was assassinated in 2007] had been saying that the establishment had stolen elections from us and today her claim has been proven to be true through the apex court judgement,” the prime minister said.

After studying a detailed judgement which the court is to announce later, Ashraf said the government would decide about the action to be taken against the former chiefs of the army and the ISI.

“It wasn’t the matter of one or two persons but the entire population of the country whose mandate was stolen to favour those whom the then establishment wanted to bring to power, thus they deserve due punishment,” he said.

The 1990 elections were won by a conglomerate of right-wing parties called Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and Nawaz Sharif was elected prime minister. Sharif now heads the main opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

Ashraf asked politicians who had received money to voluntarily come forward, return the amounts and “apologise to the nation for stealing the elections”.

The prime minister insisted there was no such corruption today and that the government is committed to holding free and fair elections and will not snatch the democratic right of the people.

Former air force chief Asghar Khan, whose petition in 1996 led to the verdict, said the judgement would curtail the military’s interference in politics.

“The Supreme Court has asked the defence services not to participate in politics and I hope it will be followed, and if it is followed correctly it will make a lot of differences to our politics,” he said.

Analyst Talat Masood, a retired army general, said the verdict would help establish a “correct” civil-military relationship in the country, which has witnessed long spells of military rule in its 65-year history.

A PML-N spokesman, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, said the leaders of the party had not received any money from the ISI, adding that the PML-N would extend every possible help to the Federal Investigation Agency probe ordered by the court.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N who was a key figure in the IJI, told a television channel that Aslam Baig had attempted to bribe him through an intermediary but he had refused to take the money.