Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani has rejected the impression that he tried to leave the country along with President Zardari, as the latter was leaving for treatment in Dubai. Responding to reports in a section of the press, Haqqani said, “Prejudice makes some people lose all sense of logic. Why would I have returned if I was in any hurry to leave the country?” he asked. “Such reporting is a direct attempt to malign me ahead of Supreme Court proceedings relating to so-called memo issue as well as an appeal seeking my legitimate right to be heard and to have freedom of movement under the law and constitution,” he said.
Haqqani said that he will draw the attention of the SC towards these blatant attempts at influencing public opinion and court proceedings through orchestrated news.
It is amusing that the reporter and editor of the same newspaper decided to target my persona the same day revealing their attempt to orchestrate propaganda with malicious intent, he added. “I have come to Pakistan to clear my name and won’t leave before doing that. My detractors first said that I won’t come to Pakistan, I proved them wrong. I will prove them doubly wrong in not so far a future,” the former envoy said. In his statement, Haqqani said he finds it odd that a column writer claimed to be in possession of an authentic account of his interaction with the big-four: the President, the PM, the army chief and the DG ISI. “If the proceedings of a meeting between 5 people, including me and four people dealing with national security at the highest level, are available to the writer, he clearly possesses rather unusual information-gathering qualities or was engaged in something other than journalism.”
