The government flip-flopped from the prime minister’s earlier stance vis-à-vis Husain Haqqani’s resignation under pressure from within the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ranks, as a number of its central leaders criticised Yousaf Raza Gilani’s move to sack Haqqani soon after the memo controversy surfaced, arguing that the step had virtually proved Haqqani guilty in media and political circles, thus putting the whole government as well as the president in a difficult situation. “The majority of the PPP central leaders in the party’s consultative meetings at the Presidency and PM’s House raised questions on the sacking of Haqqani in haste and they argued that it was the first ‘tactical mistake’ made by the government in handling memogate. Their criticism of the PM’s move to ask for Haqqani’s resignation increased manifold when they were told by President Asif Zardari and Gilani that Haqqani had completely denied the charges levelled against him by Mansoor Ijaz before the army chief and ISI DG,” a reliable source told Pakistan Today.
The source said that upon learning about Haqqani’s outright denial of accusations of being involved in the memo issue before the military’s top brass, the PPP leaders expressed their concerns over his sacking by the premier just to appease the army. “The PPP leaders from Zardari’s camp think that it was the PM’s weakness that he could not resist the pressure of the military’s top command and sacked Haqqani before the charges were proved against him. The PPP leaders think that the premier’s haste landed the whole government in troubled waters as the critics from the media and the opposition started citing Haqqani’s sacking as a proof of his guilt,” the source said.
The source said further that President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani were also not on the same page on Haqqani’s resignation in November, but the premier prevailed as he succeeded in convincing Zardari that as Haqqani’s resignation was the military’s long-standing demand, the move would defuse the memo controversy. The source said the president disagreed and said Haqqani’s sacking would be tantamount to the validation of Mansoor Ijaz’s allegations against the former ambassador and the PPP government. The affidavit submitted by the Interior Ministry on behalf of the federation on Monday (December 26) said Haqqani was not asked to resign while a statement issued by a PM’s House spokesman on November 22 had said: “The prime minister has directed to conduct a detailed investigation at an appropriate level and in the meanwhile he asked Pakistan Ambassador to the USA Husain Haqqani to submit his resignation so that the investigation can be carried out properly.” Gilani had also told the National Assembly that Haqqani’s resignation had been taken to make the memo probe transparent but on Monday (December 26), in his interaction with the media, he backtracked from his earlier statement saying that Haqqani himself had resigned.
