Crying foul: Haqqani to challenge ‘one-sided’ report

Former diplomat stated that the commission could neither pronounce him guilty nor uphold his innocence.

KARACHI: Former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani said his legal team would challenge the report of a commission, formed to probe the Memogate scandal, which stated that he authored the controversial memo.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Haqqani described the report as “political” and “one-sided” based on the findings of a “foreigner”.

He said his lawyers would be challenging the report on the basis of legal flaws in the proceedings of the commission before the Supreme Court.

“The entire proceedings reflected the political machination of ideological elements including the judiciary and had little to do with fact-finding,” he alleged.

“The commission has based its findings on the claims of one man, a foreigner, and dubious records presented by him, which were reinforced by an equally dubious exercise termed as forensics,” he said.

The former diplomat also stated that the commission could neither pronounce him guilty nor uphold his innocence. “In any case, the commission was created as a fact-finding body and not as a trial court so it has no right to pronounce anyone guilty or innocent of any crime.”

“Similarly, the Supreme Court of Pakistan cannot act as a trial court and must not abuse its authority as the court of final appeal to divert attention from the embarrassment of its politicised leadership,” he added.

Haqqani also suggested that there may have been an ulterior motive to the commission’s report. “The commission’s report has been released to distract attention from other more embarrassing developments,” he said, alluding to the allegations relating to Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s son Arsalan Chaudhry.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2012.