- Military says its stance on Haqqani’s role vindicated; ISPR shares army’s response through Twitter; refers high-profile past case in veiled reference
Following a week of calm, finally military broke its silence on Wednesday over the visas issuance to CIA special agents by former ambassador to US Husain Haqaani, with the military’s media wing director-general tweeting on social media that Haqqani’s article had vindicated the stance of the state institutions over the subject.
“Views of Husain Haqqani published in a mainstream US newspaper, especially his account on issue of visas vindicate stance of Pakistan’s state institutions,” Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) tweeted. “The veracity of concerns about his role in the entire issue also stands confirmed,” he wrote in a subsequent tweet as if it was not enough.
While the ISPR did not further elaborate, the emphasis on vindication of Pakistan’s state institutions’ stance is a veiled reference to the ‘Memogate’ case from which then army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had himself pleaded the case against Haqqani in the Supreme Court. The case is still pending with the apex court though.
The ‘Memogate’ controversy is about a memorandum sent by Haqqani to an influential businessman Mansoor Ijaz to be conveyed to then Admiral Mike Mullen ostensibly seeking help of the Obama administration in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid to avert a military takeover of the civilian government in Pakistan, as well as assisting the government to take over military apparatus.
Haqqani was removed from his post in November 2011 after being accused of hatching a conspiracy to undermine the then military leadership. However, the controversy got a new life a fortnight back when Haqqani published an article in The Washington Post newspaper earlier this month, taking credit of facilitating the stationing of American special operations and intelligence personnel on Pakistani soil ostensibly to hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Later, leaked classified documents revealed that former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani authorised Haqqani to issue visas to American nationals, bypassing all security protocols. Later, another document reflected that the visas were also issued to 36 special agents of the CIA despite warning by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, clearly stating that all those were CIA’s trained spooks.
In year 2012, then foreign affairs minister Hina Rabbani Khar had submitted a reply in the Senate stating that the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington had issued at least 52,094 visas of different categories from 2008 to 2011, out of which 13,159 visas were under the category of diplomats/officials.
It is pertinent to note here that between 2009 to 2011, only 2,202 visas were issued after the receipt of approval from the office of defence advisor, Hina Rabbani Khar had informed the Senate on February 9, 2012. The minister was responding to a question raised by then senator SM Zafar as to how many visas were issued to the American citizens by the Pakistan Embassy/missions on the recommendations of the security agencies, presidential and prime minister’s secretariats separately during the PPP regime.
Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also confirmed recently during his policy speech before the Senate that the Interior Ministry, through a letter dated July 16, 2010, had allowed Haqqani to issue diplomatic visas to American nationals without referring their cases to the ministry or security agencies for clearance.
As many as 2,487 visas had been issued between July and December that year, amounting to a 50 per cent increase over figures for previous six months. This figure was all-time high against data for the previous three years. The PPP, which was in power back then, however, fiercely defended the move.
Senator Farhatulllah Babar said that although Haqqani was empowered by the prime minister to issue visas, it did not mean that due process within the embassy, involving representatives of other relevant departments, had been circumvented. Likewise, Yousuf Raza Gilani said that he had never allowed Haqqani to issue visas to members of the US special forces.
“The envoy had only been allowed to issue visas conditionally,” Gilani told reporters in Multan last week. “Empowering any ambassador did not imply he could resort to illegal means,” he concluded.