US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter on Tuesday said the US supported political and democratic process in Pakistan and it believed that the Pakistani institutions would address the ‘memogate’ issue.
Ambassador Munter was talking to reporters in Rawalpindi after visiting the office of the Medical Transcription Billing Company (MTBC).
He was asked for his comments on the issue of the secret memo allegedly sent by Ambassador Hussain Haqqani to senior US official Admiral Mike Mullen seeking support of the Obama administration to prevent a military coup in Pakistan. Munter said the American administration was prepared to help in any probe by Pakistan into the secret memorandum.
However, he made it clear that Pakistani authorities would have to decide how to handle the matter and the modalities for any investigation into the issue. “We just leave it to the Pakistani authorities, we think they are the people who should decide. I think whatever solution, whether it’s (probe by a Supreme Court panel) or another… that’s for Pakistan to decide and we’ll be as helpful as we can.”
Concerning Haqqani, he said, “I believe he’s back in the country, he’ll be talking with the authorities here to find out what really happened. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know. We need to find out from this inquiry what this memo is and what it meant,” he said. Munter said he had not seen the memo until it was published.
He said the US State Department had been very careful in giving its reaction on the memo issue as it was Pakistan’s internal matter. He said, “We respect Pakistani institutions to address this issue.”
He said the US was supportive to the democratic process in Pakistan. “We support the rule of law, your country and the will of Pakistani people to make sure that there will be justice,” he said.
Asked about the possible replacement of Pakistani Ambassador Hussain Haqqani in US, Ambassador Munter said, “We have to wait and see.” To a question on his reported meeting with Pakistan Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan in the presence of Inter Services Intelligence Director General Lt General Ahmed Shujah Pasha, the US ambassador said, “I separately met Imran Khan and I also met with Lt General Pasha, but I have not met them together.” When asked about the US soft corner for Imran Khan, he said the people in Pakistan were looking for leadership and they were looking for a kind of society where there was openness. “Many people of this country are talking about a political system that will be transparent, that will be open and democratic, prosperous and stable. You will always hear from us supporting those kinds of ideas,” he said.
