Haqqani axed

The weeks-long ‘memogate’ controversy, which had raised a storm in the corridors of power, finally saw a head rolling as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in a bid to reduce tension between the civil and military establishments, sought resignation from Ambassador Husain Haqqani on Tuesday and asked him to face a formal investigation.
The axe fell on the ambassador in a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House when, according to sources, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha confronted Haqqani with evidence implicating him in the conspiracy. President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were also present at the meeting.
Importantly, the meeting of the country’s top military and civilian leadership took place at PM’s House instead of the Presidency. Earlier, all such important meetings used to take place at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. Though the government did not announce the composition of the investigation team, it was learnt that the ISI, which had collected the evidence, would complete the process with the assistance of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). “It’s not just the removal of Ambassador Haqqani, the venue of the meeting also suggests that the civil-military relations have been reshaped, with the prime minister now holding the fort instead of the president,” said a source privy to the developments. An official statement, issued by PM’s House, said: “The prime minister has directed to conduct a detailed investigation at an appropriate level and in the meanwhile he asked Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USA Hussain Haqqani to submit his resignation so that the investigation can be carried out properly.”
OPPORTUNITY: The statement said all concerned would be afforded sufficient and fair opportunity to present their views and the investigation would be carried out fairly, objectively and without bias. It stated further that as a result of the controversy generated by the alleged memo admitted to have been received by an “authority in USA”, it had become necessary in the national interest to formally arrive at the actual and true facts.
Citing its sources, Online news agency reported that Haqqani answered a plethora of questions raised by the military and civilian leadership. In a nutshell, he denied having any link to the memo, the sources said. However, an official said with Haqqani no longer in the ambassador’s office in Washington, the tension between the civilian rulers and the military leaders that erupted after the surfacing of the memo allegedly sent by the president through Haqqani to Admiral Mike Mullen would decrease and the two ‘parties’ would get back to business as usual.
Haqqani has been denying all the allegations levelled against him by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who has been the key character in the controversy, claiming to have delivered the secret letter to the Obama administration in May this year after the US had carried out a military raid in Abbottabad to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Haqqani, who has been using Twitter since his arrival in the country to deliver his message to the people and explain his position, tweeted after the decision: “I have requested PM Gilani to accept my resignation as Pakistan Ambassador to US.” He went on say: “I have much to contribute to building a new Pakistan free of bigotry & intolerance. Will focus energies on that.”
The downfall of Haqqani, who has always been dubbed by his critics and fans as the eyes and ears of President Zardari, started when Ijaz wrote an op-ed piece in the Financial Times claiming that he had been approached by “a senior Pakistani diplomat” based in the US to help the Presidency seek US help to prevent a possible coup by the army against the Pakistan People’s Party-led government in the wake of the Abbottabad raid.
Another Pakistani official, who asked not to be named, said that with Haqqani leaving his office, things had become clearer now and it would also lead to the reshaping of the civilian-military relationship in the coming months. “Now the authority of the civilian government will get further weakened and the army would dominate the future course of action in the country. On the civilian side, it will now be the prime minister who will come to the driving seat and the president will go to the back, leaving space for the premier to become the government’s face,” the official said. He said that enquiry into the controversy would, however, continue and it would be like a sword hanging on the civilian government’s head.
HAQQANI DENIES: Meanwhile, Haqqani stood by his earlier denials and called for a transparent enquiry into the controversy to strengthen the hands of the elected Pakistani leadership. “A transparent enquiry will strengthen the hands of elected leaders whom I strived to strengthen,” he said in a message sent to reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday. He said: “To me, Pakistan and Pakistan’s democracy are far more important than any artificially created crisis over an insignificant memo written by a self-centred businessman.”