Applicant asks SC to reopen memogate case

Requests top court to unveil detail of May 2, 2011 US raid in Abbottabad

ISLAMABAD:

A habitual petitioner has requested the apex court to reopen the Memogate case and to announce a judgment in the matter “in view of national interests”.

The application, submitted by a citizen Shahid Orakzai, contented that the US Central Investigation Agency (CIA) had protected Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, who had delivered a controversial memorandum to the US administration in May 2011.

The applicant requested the court to unveil the details of the May 2, 2011 US raid in Abbottabad and to declare the operation a failure. The applicant nominated former president Asif Ali Zardari, Haqqani, the federation and Abbottabad Commission chief Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal as respondents in the case.

The memogate controversy revolved around a memorandum seeking help from the United States in the wake of the Osama Bin Laden raid to avert a possible military takeover of the civilian government in Pakistan, as well as assisting in a civilian takeover of the government and military apparatus.

Central actors in the plot included Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who had claimed that Husain Haqqani had asked him to deliver the confidential memo asking for the US assistance.

The memo was alleged to have been drafted by Haqqani at the behest of former president Asif Ali Zardari. The memo was delivered in May 2011 to former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen through then national security adviser James L Jones.

The scandal that had a triggered a serious civil-military rift had been taken to the Supreme Court in 2011 by former premier Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the opposition then, a day after it had forced the resignation of Haqqani

The top court had formed a judicial commission to probe the case, and the commission concluded that it was “incontrovertibly established” that Haqqani had written a memo. The judicial commission had recommended that Haqqani be called back to Pakistan though Interpol to face likely charges of treason.

On February 1, 2018 the case was revived with the constitution of a three-member bench by the top court. The Supreme Court, on February 14, however, wrapped up its eight-year-long proceedings.

 Hearing the suo motu case, former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa had said the apex court has nothing to do with the matter but the state is free to pursue the case. "Are the state of Pakistan, armed forces and our Constitution so weak that they can be frightened by a memorandum?" the top judge had asked.

He had said Pakistan is not so fragile a country that it could be rattled by the writing of a memo but noted that it is the responsibility of the state to arrest and try the former ambassador if it so wished.

The applicant Shahid Orakzai said Haqqani’s counsel late Asma Jahangir was unaware of the conspiracy but did know that the former ambassador wrote a memo to Admiral Michael Mullen.