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Pakistan SC issues warrant against Husain Haqqani, former diplomat calls it an antic

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Haqqani, accused in the ‘Memogate’ case, said the international arrest warrant against him was an antic by the Pakistan’s apex court.

The Pakistani Supreme Court Thursday issued an arrest warrant against former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani. But the former ambassador said that he has not been charged with any crime and claimed it was an antic by the apex court.

“I have read with mild amusement the Pakistan Supreme Court’s claim to have issued international warrants for my arrest for failing to appear before it. Nowhere in the world do Supreme Courts issue warrants, that being a function reserved for trial courts. I have not been charged with any crime and have not been put on trial,” Haqqani told ThePrint in a telephonic interview.

According to a report in Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the Supreme Court had directed Haqqani to appear before it in the controversial ‘Memogate’ case, but the ambassador failed to comply with the court’s orders. The arrest warrant was issued during the hearing of the case Thursday.

Haqqani was accused of sending a memo seeking help from the US to prevent a military coup in Pakistan following the raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

The former diplomat was forced to resign soon after and sought asylum in the United States, where he currently resides. He is the director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

The former diplomat said that the issuing of a warrant was an antic for local news channels.

“It is sad that some judges of the highest court of Pakistan persist with such antics for local TV news coverage. Such political ‘warrants’ have not been honoured abroad in the past, and will not work now,” he said.

“Similar ‘Made for TV News’ warrants issued for Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in 2006 and former General Pervez Musharraf in 2012 did not work, nor were they effective against Mr Altaf Hussain. I am confident and comfortable about carrying on my life, uninterrupted by the extra-legal manoeuvering that passes off for judicial proceedings in Pakistan,” Haqqani said.

In addition to the warrant, the Federal Investigation Agency, which is Pakistan’s top investigation agency – has asked Interpol to issue a red corner notice against Haqqani. The red corner notice issued by Interpol, is the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant.

Haqqani tweeted three links to highlight what he claimed was the futility of the FIA’s request, as Interpol has refused to issue warrants in politically motivated cases.

Haqqani also tweeted a video of Pakistani poet and journalist Atif Tauqeer, in which the poet mockingly speaks about how the government instantly brands anyone who criticises it a traitor.

On 7 February 2018, The Express Tribune reported that Haqqani had instructed his advocate on record and counsel to withdraw from the Supreme Court proceedings in the Memogate case, saying, “These have no relevance in the eyes of the world at a time when the standing of Pakistan’s politicised judiciary is at its lowest.”

The former diplomat also alleged that the judiciary had revived the case after six years in an attempt to revive propaganda against him due to his forthcoming book, Reimagining Pakistan.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Correct that it is an antic — but then, Pornistan’s uniformed goondacracy, its defacto misgovernment, has been doing such since Anthony Mascarenhas escaped to London and published the unvarnished truth about them!

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