Memogate: Haqqani seeks exemption from physical appearance before bench

Counsel Asma Jahangir claims Haqqani faces life threat, that his presence is not necessary at this stage of hearings.

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani on Monday moved an application asking the Supreme Court to review its June 12 order which compels him to appear before the bench in the memo scandal case when asked for.

Asma Jahangir, the counsel for Haqqani, filed the application in the apex court under the apex court rules 1980 for reconsidering its June 12 order claiming her client had been threatened by powerful forces in Pakistan, who are not under the control of any authority in the country.

The Supreme Court had on July 12 given Haqqani a three-day notice for submitting an application to the court for reviewing its summoning orders.

The review petition is being filed in view of the developments which have taken place after Haqqani left for the United States in late January this year, his lawyer said. Jahangir said that her client had remained in Pakistan after his resignation as ambassador. She added that her client’s family was residing in the US but he remained in the country during the memo commission’s initial meetings.

“By the time, Husain Haqqani left Pakistan on an undertaking to return to Pakistan whenever required by the commission or the Supreme Court, there was no sign of the commission agreeing to travel abroad to record evidence nor was the commission contemplating securing evidence through video link. These suggestions were orally turned down by the commission,” said further said.

Asma also mentioned that Haqqani had also filed an application before the commission and then subsequently the Supreme Court for extending the same video link facility for recording his testimony as had been to Mansoor Ijaz, the chief character in the scandal. But, his request was rejected by the commission without any reason. “At this stage, the presence, in person, of respondent is not required and to ensure such a presence would enormously risky and outweigh by many bounds the requirement of his physical presence,” she added.

She requested the court to reconsider the June 12 order as under the law as laid down whether in the criminal procedure code or the civil procedure code, that the physical presence of Husain Haqqani, at this stage of the hearings, is not mandatory.

Haqqani has also moved a separate application seeking access to video tapes of evidence collected by the commission which had been tasked with determining who authored the unsigned memo delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen.