After having been unable to obtain the PIN and blackberry sets of Husain Haqqani so far, the memo commission on Monday sought decrypted version of the statements sent by the former ambassador to the US to the Foreign Office (FO) in 2011, so as to find a possible hint about the memorandum in those messages. As Haqqani ‘violated’ his own affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court and did not appear before the commission to record his statement, the commission expressed “great restraint and extensive grace” and announced to provide him another opportunity to appear before the commission on next date of hearing.
It directed former foreign secretary Salman Bashir, present Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and Head of the US Desk in FO Sohail Khan to appear before the commission on next date of hearing with a copy of contract agreement of the former ambassador Husain Haqqani, SoPs, briefings, protocols, guidelines for the politically-appointed ambassadors and other relevant record that could help the commission establish the nature of the job and duties of a political appointee. Due to sensitivity of the information, the commission would hold in-camera proceedings. Earlier, Foreign Office director told the commission that the telegrams containing sensitive information from Pakistani embassies abroad were received in the FO in an encrypted version and only an expert having the ‘key’ could decrypt it. Haqqani did not appear before the commission on Monday for recording his statement due to security concerns and his counsel requested the commission to adjourn the proceedings until the Supreme Court passed an order on his application for recording his statement via video link from London as the star witness Mansoor Ijaz was allowed. However, the commission rejected the request with an observation that there was no comparison between Ijaz and Haqqani, as the former was a foreign national and the latter was a Pakistani citizen and government servant. The commission also referred Article 5 of the constitution which deals with loyalty to the state and added that it applied to each Pakistani citizen wherever he may be. It further said that Mansoor Ijaz, a US citizen, was not bound to obey the Pakistani constitution. Commission Chairman Justice Qazi Faez Isa asked the deputy attorney general what the government of Pakistan could do to bring Haqqani back to Pakistan if he refused to come back. He observed that Haqqani had put the government in an embarrassing situation by saying that it could not provide him security. “You cannot provide security to your own former ambassador,” he addressed the deputy attorney general.
The commission was astonished that Haqqani did not express any kind of threat to his life on the last hearing. “Haqqani is bound to obey the constitution unless he revokes Pakistani nationality,” Justice Isa remarked. Deputy Attorney General told the commission that neither Haqqani nor his counsel conveyed any security concerns to his office.
Justice Isa further said that Haqqani served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Sri Lanka during 1990s when there was civil war in that country and added now he was not coming to Pakistan due to security reasons. Akram Shaikh and other lawyers asked the commission to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Haqqani for disobeying the commission orders. They were of the view that Haqqani had submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court that he would be available on a four-day notice at Islamabad to record his statement, but he did not do so. However, Zahid Bukhari, the counsel of Husain Haqqani, opposed any kind of proceedings against his client, saying he had not refused to come to Pakistan rather did not come as he felt threatened from the intelligence agencies of 24 countries that were in contact with Mansoor Ijaz.
Yaseen Malik: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yaseen Malik in his statement said that he would retire from his public life if proven that he ever met any RAW official during his thirty years of political life. He told the commission that Mansoor Ijaz had tried to arrange his meeting with the RAW chief but he refused.
“Mansoor Ijaz called me to have a lunch with him when he was in Haryana (India) to attend a symposium. I went to his room and in the meantime a person appeared there to whom Ijaz introduced me as his Indian businessman friend. He asked me if I wanted to meet RAW chief… I declined and left the room within 15 minutes,” he told the commission. Akram Shaikh would inform the commission in-writing by March 31st if he wanted to cross-examine Yaseen Malik or not. Malik also claimed that he had thrown a shoe at Ijaz at a gathering in India after he “abused Kashmiri Muslims”.