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Ex-Pak envoy to US summoned
Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to Washington was summoned by the country’s top court on Tuesday as judges concluded he sought US help to curb the power of the military after Osama bin Laden’s death.
Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to Washington was summoned by the country’s top court on Tuesday as judges concluded he sought US help to curb the power of the military after Osama bin Laden’s death.
A judicial commission set up by the Supreme Court has spent six months investigating an unsigned document received in May 2011 by the then US top military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, just days after bin Laden was killed in Pakistan.
Husain Haqqani, who was forced to resign as ambassador last November, denies any wrongdoing and dismissed the commission report as “political and one-sided”. He has since returned to his former life as an academic at Boston University.
The commission’s 600-page report to the Supreme Court held Haqqani responsible for the memo, accused him of disloyalty to Pakistan and said he had violated the constitution.
“Haqqani was the originator and architect of the memorandum. He sought American help; he also wanted to create a niche for himself, making himself forever indispensable to the Americans,” said a copy of Tuesday’s ruling.
It was unacceptable for a Pakistani ambassador “to beseech a foreign government to with impunity meddle in and run our affairs”.
It also questioned President Asif Ali Zardari’s decision to give an “extremely sensitive” job to a man who had been living in the United States with “no obvious ties to Pakistan”.
The court adjourned for two weeks and ordered Haqqani, along with witness, American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, and the petitioners, including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, to appear when the hearing resumes. No date for the hearing was announced.
