Haqqani withdraws counsel, criticizes SC over Memogate case

Pakistan's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani has instructed his advocate and counsel to withdraw from further Supreme Court proceedings in the Memogate case, citing the "lowest" standing of the country's "politicised judiciary". The Memogate controversy erupted in 2011 when Pakistani- American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed to have received an "anti-army" memo from Haqqani, the then-envoy to the US. Haqqani was accused of sending the memo seeking help from the US to stop a military coup in Pakistan following the raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011. Haqqani said he had "no expectation of justice or fair- play from the Pakistani establishment, of which the Supreme Court is an integral part". He described the renewal of the Memogate case after a hiatus of six years as "an attempt to revive propaganda against me in anticipation of my forthcoming book 'Reimagining Pakistan'". Haqqani currently is director South and Central Asia, Hudson Institute, a top American think-tank. "For over six years no criminal charges have been filed or trial initiated against me because I committed no crime," Haqqani said. The Supreme Court has yet to say what if any crime was committed and why it continues to act as court of first instance instead of serving as court of final appeal, he asked. Haqqani said the apex court proceedings "have no relevance in the eyes of the world at a time when the standing of Pakistan's politicised judiciary is at its lowest". "The Supreme Court shelved the original proceedings because of the embarrassing lacunae in its judgement," he alleged. Haqqani said the lacunae include appointing an Inquiry Commission even though the Inquiry Commission Act 1956 authorises the executive, not the judiciary, to appoint such commissions and appointing High Court judges to the Commission even though the law expressly states that High Court judges cannot comprise such a Commission. Giving directions to the High Court, which the Supreme Court cannot do under the Constitution; and appointing the Commission under Order XXXVI of the Supreme Court Rules which had been repealed in 2003," he added in a statement. Haqqani insisted that the case had been "resuscitated" to generate headlines in the Pakistani media just as the original case was filed for "media noise". "It does not have any legal foundation as the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and many others pointed out when it was initiated," he said. "These politically motivated proceedings will not detract me from my writing and speaking out for much needed reforms of Pakistan's foreign and domestic policies," Haqqani said. "Many Pakistanis and the rest of the world already know that I have been targeted for pointing out the incongruence in the world's sixth largest nuclear weapons power, Pakistan, being home to one of the world's largest out-of-school population and lagging behind in almost all human development indicators," he said. The former ambassador said the Pakistani court system had "lost its credibility" and that the rest of the world holds Pakistan's judges "in low esteem". "Whatever the court says or does will have no effect outside the propaganda bubble that has been created inside Pakistan," Haqqani said. He asserted that the judges should clear the backlog of hundreds of thousands pending cases and dispense justice to "hapless" Pakistanis according to the law and the constitution instead of wasting time on Memogate again.

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