SITUATIONER – With innumerable challenges, political and legal, already dogging the Zardari-Gilani government, the ‘memo’ controversy appears to have dominated every issue, no matter how critical it is, and the trust deficit between the civil and military establishments, irrespective of business ostensibly getting back to normal after the removal of Husain Haqqani, continues to increase because of what is being considered a deliberate delay on the part of the government to start a formal investigation into the plot that had raised concerns about “national security”.
Although the president has dissociated himself from the conspiracy by denying that he was in any way involved in it, Haqqani’s response to the 32 questions put to him by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) will, however, determine the direction of the investigation. He has yet to provide his response to these questions, albeit he had also denied all allegations when confronted with by the ISI chief in the presence of the army chief, the president and the prime minister.
It is no longer a secret now that the army chief had demanded the president summon Haqqani to face the investigation when the former ambassador was reported to have sent his resignation from Washington and was said to have decided not to fly back to Pakistan. Though it was expected that the government would place restrictions on the movement of Haqqani, who is a guest at the Presidency, he remains a free citizen with the army and the ISI staying satisfied that he is under “protective custody” of his host.
And there is no possibility that the president will give him safe passage to leave the country as Haqqani fleeing abroad before the completion of investigations will undoubtedly confirm Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz’s claim about the former ambassador’s involvement in the ‘memo’ controversy besides lending credence to the leads suggesting that the conspiracy to draft and send this ‘memo’ to the US administration was hatched with support from Islamabad.
A mole, who briefly interacted with Haqqani at the Presidency, says that the former ambassador appeared “relaxed” particularly after the petitions were filed in the Supreme Court on the ‘memo’ issue also seeking placement of his name on the Exit Control List to stop him from any possible attempt to leave the country. Haqqani would certainly be a relieved man with the filing of these petitions as the matter would now possibly get into judicial examination and the judicial process is generally not time-bound. While Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif had set a 10-day deadline for the government to complete investigation into the ‘memo’ issue, also saying that he would file a petition in the Supreme Court in case the government failed to hold an enquiry, his decision to approach the court before the deadline passed has raised many eyebrows.
What the observers are evaluating as of critically significant importance is the shifting of the venue of Tuesday’s meeting from the Presidency to PM’s House. A marathon session of the top four with Haqqani also in attendance was first held at the Presidency and later moved to PM’s House, considering it a neutral place, for a short time for the decision, which could not have been taken at the top office. The statement about the removal of the ambassador was issued from PM’s House. This can be variously interpreted.
The insiders are of the view that the government, particularly the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership, may consider driving the political advantage of this situation and resist the army and the ISI on the ‘memo’ controversy to a point of confrontation to make it up for the next elections once again soliciting sympathies against the establishment. The government is already faced with a popularity crisis. The opposition parties are exploiting every single issue and the electioneering seems to have already begun with the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf in particular raising a storm over rampant corruption and bad governance.
