Husain Haqqani says he is in a house arrest in Pakistan as the memogate investigation expands
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 2:48:19 by Hamza Jahangir
Just a few months ago, Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, brimmed with charm and confidence as he hosted lavish dinner parties for diplomats, generals, journalists and White House aides in Washington.
Now Mr. Haqqani is confined to the regal hilltop residence of Pakistan’s prime minister, tangled in a legal battle over a controversial memo that he says has put his life in jeopardy.
Hounded by what he and his supporters say is a vicious smear campaign by a nationalist, right-wing media, and fearful of being kidnapped or killed by the country’s powerful spy agency, Mr. Haqqani has spent the past five weeks
sequestered in a guest suite in the premier’s residence overlooking the capital. He has left the compound just three times — twice for legal proceedings and once for a dental appointment — each time flanked by a heavy security detail.
As ambassador, Mr. Haqqani, a 55-year-old former journalist and Boston University professor, glided about Washington pressing Pakistan’s case to Congress and administration officials, and dropping news tips to reporters. Now he
feels cooped up.
“I can go out for a walk, but it is essentially like a house arrest,” Mr. Haqqani said in an interview.
On Monday, Mr. Haqqani will leave his gilded cage again, this time to testify before a three-judge panel created by Pakistan’s Supreme Court last month to investigate the memo. The document, supposedly drafted by the civilian government
shortly after an American raid killed Osama bin Laden in May, solicited help in stopping a possible coup by the humiliated Pakistani military.
The government and Mr. Haqqani have insisted they had nothing to do with the document. Pakistan’s military has dismissed the idea that it was plotting to take power. But the case has brought tensions between Pakistan’s military
and its civilian leaders to perhaps the highest pitch since a civilian government was elected three years ago.
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=8632
Posted by Hamza Jahangir
on Jan 10 2012. Filed under Pakistan.
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