Video testimony: SC throws ball back to Memo panel’s court

Says commission to decide procedure for recording Haqqani’s statement. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred former Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani’s petition seeking injunction for video testimony to the judicial commission probing what has come to be known as the Memogate scandal.

Haqqani had filed an application to the apex court through his counsel Asma Jahangir to have his statement recorded through video link, just as Mansoor Ijaz’s was recorded in London. A 10-member bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, transferred the responsibility to the judicial commission to decide how it wants to record Haqqani’s statements.  Asma maintained that Haqqani could not return to the country to appear before the commission for security reasons.

She also presented records of threatening messages, emails and tweets that are hinting at the murder of the former ambassador upon his return.

“He (Haqqani) possessed passport of Pakistan and should not hesitate to return,” the chief justice said. Asma claimed that her client was falsely squeezed into the case and complained of Qazi Faez Isa’s ‘biased’ approach.

The SC had allowed Haqqani to travel abroad on a condition that he will return to the country within four days of being summoned by the judicial commission.

The court added that the commission, without prejudice, may adopt a procedure for recording of statement in the interest of justice as desired by it.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2012.