Memo case: Supreme Court displeases over absence of Hussain Haqqani

Expressing displeasure over the absence of former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani, the Supreme Court of Pakistan said that he should have kept his promise as he was not granted exemption from appearing before the bench.

A nine-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary resumed hearing the inglorious Memogate case for which notices were issued to 20 parties in the case.

The case was pertaining to a controversial memo sent to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen seeking US intervention to avert a possible overthrow of the government by the military

Earlier in June 2012, the Memo Commission had held that Pakistan’s former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani was the architect of the controversial memo.

The chief justice in the course of hearing said that the petitioners were instructed to submit replies and objections within five days.  Counsel for Hussain Haqqani Asma Jahangir in reply to this said informed the court that a copy of his client’s letter was shown to Barrister Zafarullah for information after the hearing.

Justice Saqib Nisar asked that the letter was a mutual conversation between a lawyer and his client, adding that what was the legal status of such conversation?

To this, Asma Jahangir said that the reasons of Haqqani’s absence and objections over the memo commission were submitted on which Barrister Zafarullah had submitted Haqqani’s letter regarding his refusal on appearing before the court on July 12. Justice Nisar told that the letter was returned by the court.

It is vital to mention here that the memo controversy emerged when US-based businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote an article in the ‘Financial Times’ revealing about the memo written to Admiral Mike Mullen on behalf of the Pakistani government in order to seek help from the Obama administration in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid to avert a military takeover of the civilian government in Pakistan.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, pleading to investigate the matter. Consequently, a larger bench comprising nine judges and headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was formed by the SC to hear the petitions.

A judicial commission was also formed to probe the matter that declared the memo a reality and hold then US ambassador Husain Haqqani responsible to draft the memo. His counsel in the case, Asma Jahangir has also filed the petition against the report.

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Posted by Web Desk on Nov 12 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.