SC accepts Haqqani’s appeal against Dec 1 order in ‘memo’ controversy

Setting aside the Registrar Office’s objections to the appeal of former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani against the Supreme Court’s December 1 order in the memo controversy, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday ordered fixation of the appeal before a nine-member larger bench on December 19 along with other pleas seeking probe into the memo issue. Haqqani’s appeal, filed by his lawyer Asma Jahangir on Friday seeking recalling of the court’s December 1 order, was rejected by the SC Registrar’s Office after raising various objections, including that the appeal could not be filed against any order of the court, but a review petition could be filed. Haqqani on Saturday filed another plea against the Registrar’s Office’s objections that was referred to the chief justice, who after hearing it in chambers, set aside the objections and directed its fixation for hearing.
In the first hearing of the memo case on December 1, the Supreme Court had appointed a commission to probe into “memogate” and had stopped Haqqani from leaving the country. The court had also asked the president, army chief, the ISI head and Haqqani to submit their replies with the court within two weeks. The petitions seeking probe of memo controversy were filed by PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and others. On Friday, Haqqani had submitted his reply to the court, requesting that Nawaz Sharif’s petition be dismissed with costs. He had also moved a separate plea challenging the December 1 order of the apex court on Nawaz Sharif’s petition on the memo scandal.
In his plea, Haqqani said he was deprived of his rights of being heard, guaranteed under the constitution. He contended that the court was influenced by media hype that was often motivated by ulterior motives and that it had been based on the accusations of a dubious individual. He also had contended that Nawaz’s petition was not maintainable under Article 184 (3), as he had not mentioned any violation of fundamental rights.