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Haqqani found guilty

The Judicial Commission on ‘Memogate’ set up to probe the scandal has concluded that the memo delivered to the Obama administration seeking assistance for the civilian government in reining in Pakistan’s security establishment was authored by the country’s envoy Hussain Haqqani.

The commission’s report made public by the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Pakistani envoy was not loyal to the state he was representing in Washington. He sought to become head of security council, established nexus between the ISI and the Taleban, offered the US direct action in tribal areas against Al Qaeda and Afghanistan’s pro-Taleban Haqqani Group and to open up Pakistan’s nuclear facilities to the US monitoring.
A nine-member bench of the top court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry unveiled the report and issued notices to all concerned including Haqqani to respond to the findings of the report within two weeks.
Haqqani is currently in the US and has resisted commission’s notices to return to Pakistan. The court had allowed Haqqani to leave the country in March last after he pledged to return on a four-day summon but he has since resisted all directives on plea he is unwell and also faces threat to his life. The scandal had started when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed last year of having received a message from Haqqani to deliver through a US business Tycoon Mansoor Ijaz, a confidential memo to Admiral Mike Mullen, the then US military chief, regarding a possible military takeover. The scam had taken the country by storm, publicly pitted the civilian government against the security establishment and led to dismissal of Haqqani. There were hints that Haqqani had acted on behalf of President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. While the army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and the then Inter-Services Intelligence chief Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha filed affidavits virtually endorsing the accusations against Haqqani.
Premier Gilani dubbed the memo a “figment of imagination” of Mansoor Ijaz.
The commission concluded that the memo was not a farce, but a reality. The motive of the author was to assure the US that the civilian government of Pakistan was its ally.
The report stated that being an ambassador, it was not proper for Haqqani to give such assurances to a foreign country.
Haqqani was recalled from Washington under pressure from the army chief and then sacked. During court proceedings he stayed in the Prime Minsiter’s House virtually cut off from the outside world.
Reacting to the commissions report through Twitter, Haqqani said commission’s proceedings were one-sided.
He dubbed the report as an attempt to deflect attention to more embarrassing developments and vowed to challenge it through legal means.
His counsel Asma Jehangir alleged the commission acted in a partisan way and compelled Haqqani and his lawyers to boycott the proceedings.
news@khaleejtimes.com

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