WASHINGTON – Former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani haslashed out at the Supreme Court of Pakistan over the issue of reopening theMemogate Scandal case against him.
He has reportedly instructed his advocate on record and counsel to withdrawfrom further Supreme Court proceedings in the Memogate case, saying “thesehave no relevance in the eyes of the world at a time when the standing ofPakistan’s politicised judiciary is at its lowest.”
Haqqani said, “no expectation of justice or fair play from the Pakistaniestablishment, of which the Supreme Court is an integral part” anddescribed renewal of the Memogate case after a hiatus of six years as “anattempt to revive propaganda against me in anticipation of my forthcomingbook ‘Reimagining Pakistan.”
“For over six years no criminal charges have been filed or trial initiatedagainst me because I committed no crime,” Haqqani declared, adding,“Indeed, the Supreme Court has yet to say what if any crime was committedand why it continues to act as court of the first instance instead ofserving as court of final appeal.”
According to Haqqani, “The Supreme Court shelved the original proceedingsbecause of the embarrassing lacunae in its judgment. These include: suchas appointing an Inquiry Commission even though the Inquiry Commission Act1956 authorizes the executive, not the judiciary, to appoint suchcommissions; appointing High Court judges to the Commission even though thelaw expressly states that High Court judges cannot comprise such aCommission; Giving directions to the High Court, which the Supreme Courtcannot do under the Constitution; and appointing the Commission under OrderXXXVI of the Supreme Court Rules which had been repealed in 2003.”
Haqqani insisted that the case had “been resuscitated to generate headlinesin the Pakistani media just as the original case was filed for media noise.It does not have any legal foundation as the International Commission ofJurists (ICJ) and many others pointed out when it was initiated.”
“These politically motivated proceedings will not detract me from mywriting and speaking out for much-needed reforms of Pakistan’s foreign anddomestic policies,” Haqqani said.
He pointed out that “many Pakistanis and the rest of the world already knowthat I have been targeted for pointing out the incongruence in the world’ssixth largest nuclear weapons power, Pakistan, being home to one of theworld’s largest out-of-school population and lagging behind in almost allhuman development indicators.”
The former ambassador said the Pakistani court system had “lost itscredibility” and that the rest of the world holds Pakistan’s judges “in lowesteem.”
He said: “Whatever the court says or does will have no effect outside thepropaganda bubble that has been created inside Pakistan,” Haqqaniconcluded, suggesting that “the judges should clear the backlog of hundredsof thousands pending cases and dispense justice to hapless Pakistanisaccording to the law and the constitution” instead of wasting time onMemogate again.