As the deadline set by the Supreme Court for filing replies in the memo case expired on Friday, no government official is still clear on when or whether President Asif Ali Zardari will file his reply in the apex court. Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq is giving confusing, ambiguous and contradictory statements over the president’s awaited reply, saying the president would not file a reply as the Foreign and Interior Ministry’s reply had already been filed on Thursday, which, according to him, was the reply of the federation, which the president is also part of. He said the reply of the ministries had clearly stated that the president had no link to the memo issue, besides the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to entertain petitions against the memo case under Article 184(3) of the constitution, thus the president would not file his reply. At the same time, talking to a group of reporters at the Supreme Court on Friday, he said since President Zardari was out of the country, thus he (the president) would decide about filing his reply after his return. He said everyone knew the president was ill and out of country, thus this justification of not filing the reply could also be presented before the Supreme Court on December 19, the date of the hearing of the memo case. He said the president personally had not been made respondent in the petitions, adding that he did not so far receive any instruction from the government about filing the president’s reply. To another query, he said the chief of army staff and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief submitted their replies as they were personally made respondents in the petitions.
Haq said both of them could personally appear in court if they wanted. When asked which respondent he would defend before the court in the memo case, he said he still had not received any instructions in this regard. He said the 15-day deadline given by the Supreme Court for filing of replies expired on Friday. Being the chief law officer of the federation, instead of giving his stance on the president’s immunity from criminal proceedings, he said according to some constitutional experts the president enjoyed immunity, so he was not required to file a reply in the case. On Thursday, he told reporters that the replies of Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI Director General Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha were submitted to the Supreme Court through him. However, on Friday he backtracked and said both Kayani and Pasha had submitted their replies on their own. A few days ago, the Supreme Court had admonished him after he had issued a statement to the media stating that he did not appear in court on behalf of the federation in the memo case on December 1, but appeared just to assist the court. The court had made it clear to him that he was the chief law officer of the federation, thus he was issued a notice and he was appearing on behalf of the dederation. The attorney general’s contradicting statements indicate sheer lack of coordination between him and the federation. Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Pakistan Today that the president would not file his reply as the federation has already submitted its reply on Thursday. He said the president and prime minister had no link to the memo issue, and all the political parties in parliament were members of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which was independent to hold an enquiry into the memo issue. A few days ago, Babar had stated that the president “will submit his reply before the court even if he does not return from Dubai”.
Earlier, the federal government’s legal team had decided to file the president’s reply after examining the concise statements of the army chief and ISI chief. The legal team had considered three options: firstly to seek more time from the apex court to file the reply, secondly presidential immunity should be claimed, and thirdly there was no need to submit a reply on behalf of Zardari as the applicants had not directly made him a respondent in their petitions.
A nine-member larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is set to resume hearing of the memo case on December 19.
