The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) requested the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday to implead Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Pakistan’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, in the memo case besides praying for directing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure Wajid’s presence in court for once.
It also requested that Wajid should not be allowed to leave the country until the investigations were over. In their civil miscellaneous applications filed with the Supreme Court, PML-N leaders Ishaq Dar and Khawaja Asif also pleaded the court to make Shaheen Sehbai, group editor The News and Muhammad Malick, editor The News Islamabad, parties in the memo case. The PML-N leaders contended that an impression had been created by the civil authorities that Pakistan knew nothing about the Abbottabad operation until after the same had been actually accomplished. However, they stated that Shaheen Sehbai in his story appearing on December 8, 2011, while quoting interviews of Pakistan’s High Commissioner in UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan with CNN, BBC and NDTV, revealed that Pakistan had at least eight to 10 days advance knowledge of the May 2, US operation.
The report further revealed that Pakistan knew the operation was going to happen and Pakistan assisted in terms of authorisation of the helicopter flights in its space. Similarly, the report quoted the high commissioner’s interview, saying Pakistan knew about Bin Laden’s location and helped the US reach him. The petitioners further submitted that in another report on December 8, 2011, by Mehreen Zahra Malik, Mansoor Ijaz alleged per an article published in December 3, 2011 issue of The Newsweek that former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani and President Asif Ali Zardari had prior knowledge of the US stealth mission to eliminate Osama Bin Laden. The PML-N leaders sated that another senior journalist Mohammad Malick, editor of The News, had authored numerous informative reports on the subject and two reports dated November 18 and November 20, 2011 were co-authored with Shaheen Sehbai.
