The memo controversy seems to remain an inextricable riddle for the nation as the de-escalation phase begins. It was expected. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s retraction of his statement about Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha was understandably an initiative to avoid confrontation and bring the civil-military relations back to normal – no more sabre-rattling. The efforts of intermediaries worked.
Politics is the art of the possible. The prime minister handled the volatile situation, politically. And, nothing happened to the disappointment of the agents of instability who had thought the government would not last beyond the month of February and kept adding fuel to the fire. The states don’t work that way, albeit our political history is contrary to this as such a situation in the past had always taken its toll with one or two heads rolling or the system being packed up.
Though two heads, the defence secretary and the country’s former ambassador to Washington, did roll this time, the government stayed and the tension, if not completely defused, started showing signs of de-escalation – the Supreme Court order in the memo case on Monday is an indicator. The memo commission was granted two more months to complete its investigation and Husain Haqqani was allowed to conditionally leave the country. What appears to have been agreed to as a middle ground to end the impasse is: one, the prime minister should withdraw his statement; and two, the removal of the ambassador and the defence secretary should be a balancing factor with both sides having compromised on one head each and the top men in Islamabad and Rawalpindi continuing till their respective tenures in office end. After all, the prime minister had predicted that all top offices were secure subsequent to the extension in General Kayani’s service as army chief – he has so far not retracted this statement.
Mansoor Ijaz continues to make headlines. Following the nine-member Supreme Court bench’s decision on the memo commission’s request and Haqqani’s application, he made a startling disclosure that it was
he who, in a letter to the chief justice, had asked the top judge to allow the former ambassador to leave the country. Surprisingly, he had asked the chief justice to keep his letter secret but he himself reportedly leaked its contents to the media.
An un-attributed report claimed Ijaz wrote to the chief justice that if he guaranteed his protection and safe return immediately after his deposition before the memo commission, he would come to Pakistan. He feared that in case he came to Pakistan he would get stuck here for what he considered a year, and this would affect his business and family.
He also claimed that it was his proposal to let Haqqani leave the country as it was like keeping him free and the former ambassador under restriction.
On the face of it, his claims simply appear ridiculous.
Whether or not the chief justice guarantees him protection and safe return remains to be seen. But if it really happened on his writing a letter to the chief justice then it must have been with the consent of all concerned in the larger national interest under the doctrine of necessity – the national interest has to be supreme, we are always told, and a new development pushes us into an even more grievous situation.
THE MEMO THAT WAS!
