SC to conduct in-chamber hearing of Husain Haqqani repatriation case

ISLAMABAD - Supreme Court has accepted a state request to hear a plea regarding repatriation of former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani in-chamber.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the suo motu notice on Wednesday.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice asked the state counsel about the progress made by the government for repatriation of Haqqani.

Upon this, Ahmer Bilal Sofi, amicus curiae in the case, said progress had been made on official level, however, he would able to discuss in-chamber; the bench while accepting the plea decided to hear the case in chamber.

Husain Haqqani is accused of delivering a memo to retired US Navy Admiral Mike Mullen through Mansoor Ijaz in 2011; the memo had allegedly requested the US to support Pakistani civilian government against its military establishment after the May 2 raid.

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On January 29 this year, the chief justice, while hearing a case regarding the right of overseas Pakistanis to cast votes in the elections, had summoned details of the Memogate case which had jolted the civil-military relationship in 2011.

Federal Investigation Agency had registered an FIR against the former ambassador to US on March 10 which stated: “ accused Husain Haqqani during his posting as ambassador of Pakistan in USA (from May 2008 to November 2011) in collaboration with other concerned officers/officials misused his official position, committed cheating, criminal breach of trust and misappropriated approximately $2 million of the national exchequer of Pakistan per year dishonestly and fraudulently.”

Subsequently, red warrants were issued for the former ambassador’s arrest. Haqqani had earlier appeared before the supreme court as well, however, he denies any wrongdoing in this regard.

In one of his explosives articles widely discussed, the former Pakistani envoy said that he was forced to resign as ambassador after Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus gained the upper hand in the country’s perennial power struggle.