ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday ordered the government to bring back the country’s former envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, within a month so he can be put on trial in the “Memogate” case.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, head of the three-member bench hearing the case, expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the case had proceeded in the last few years. He also warned that political analysts should not comment on the case since the matter was sub judice.
The chief justice challenged the perception that the court was trying to revive an old issue, contending that the 2011 Memogate case had become a matter of honor for the court and the country.
Haqqani was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US from 2008 to 2011. He resigned after he was accused of writing a memo seeking help from Washington against his country’s military and intelligence agencies just a few days after the Americans had killed Osama bin Laden.
Haqqani, who has always denied all the allegations against him, has been living in the US since January 2012 after the Supreme Court allowed him to leave the country.
During Wednesday’s hearing, the chief justice said that the court would not tolerate any delays in the former envoy’s return to Pakistan. The Federal Investigation Agency’s director general assured the court he would personally go to the US and take care of the matter.
Haqqani has already described the case as the Pakistani judiciary’s “antics for local TV news coverage” in a tweet. Reacting to an earlier development, in which the authorities sought an Interpol Red Notice against him, he said: “Such political ‘warrants’ have not been honored abroad in the past, (and this) won’t work now.”
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, head of the three-member bench hearing the case, expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the case had proceeded in the last few years. He also warned that political analysts should not comment on the case since the matter was sub judice.
The chief justice challenged the perception that the court was trying to revive an old issue, contending that the 2011 Memogate case had become a matter of honor for the court and the country.
Haqqani was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US from 2008 to 2011. He resigned after he was accused of writing a memo seeking help from Washington against his country’s military and intelligence agencies just a few days after the Americans had killed Osama bin Laden.
Haqqani, who has always denied all the allegations against him, has been living in the US since January 2012 after the Supreme Court allowed him to leave the country.
During Wednesday’s hearing, the chief justice said that the court would not tolerate any delays in the former envoy’s return to Pakistan. The Federal Investigation Agency’s director general assured the court he would personally go to the US and take care of the matter.
Haqqani has already described the case as the Pakistani judiciary’s “antics for local TV news coverage” in a tweet. Reacting to an earlier development, in which the authorities sought an Interpol Red Notice against him, he said: “Such political ‘warrants’ have not been honored abroad in the past, (and this) won’t work now.”
