LAHORE: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court directed Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree to convince the court that a lie detector was a reliable method of gauging truth and falsehood.
Judge Bandial issued the direction on Tuesday while hearing Jafree’s petition seeking direction for government to use lie detecting machines on Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani to find out the truth in the memogate scandal.
Barrister Jafree argued that many developed countries had been using lie detecting machines. He insisted that the machine gave the ‘best’ results.
Justice Bandial adjourned the hearing till December 19 and asked the counsel to come up with convincing arguments whether the government could rely on the machine.
The petitioner said that Haqqani’s alleged act had tarnished the image of both Pakistan and its armed forces and was an attempt to cede Pakistan’s sovereignty to the US.
He said Haqqani held dual nationality of Pakistan and the US. He said in the past he was appointed Pakistani ambassador to Sri Lanka in violation of merit by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Later, he changed parties and joined the ‘Zardari Group’ and became the Pakistani ambassador to the US again in violation of merit, the lawyer added. He also accused Haqqani of wasting public money ($5 million) in the unsuccessful defence of Dr Aafia Siddiqui before the US courts.
The petitioner had requested the court to order that a lie detecting machine be used on Haqqani and other politicians to ascertain the facts in the memo-to-Mullen inquiry.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2011.
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