Courts allow Haqqani to travel abroad

Pakistan’s supreme court probing the memogate issue has granted Pakistan’s former envoy to US, Husain Haqqani, permission to travel abroad. The nine-member bench said that Haqqani will have to provide details to the Registrar Office and should come back at four-day’s notice, Geo News reported. The memogate issue concerns a memo delivered to the US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen by a US-based Pakistani business man Mansoor Ijaz, who claims the memo was issued to him by Husain Haqqani at the behest of Pakistani government. The memo said, Zardari feared a military coup after the Osama bin Laden was killed by US marines in Abbottabad on May 2, last year. [caption id=“attachment_197506” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“AFP”]  [/caption] Haqqani had stepped down after the memo came to light. He was succeeded by former minister Sherry Rehman. Haqqani’s lawyer, Asma Jahangir, has been pleading the courts to let his client travel abroad. Minutes after the courts lifted the ban on him traveling abroad, Haqqani tweeted, “Supreme Court restores my freedom 2 travel. Lest some1 forgets, I returned & resigned voluntarily 2 disprove falsehoods.” Haqqani maintains that he maintained the memo to Ijaz at the behest of the Pakistani establishment, and President Asif Ali Zardari had feared a military takeover in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing last year. Haqqani’s wife had herself in the midst of a row last week, following a Sunday Times report that said she had fled the country fearing abduction by the Inter-Services Intelligence. She, however, rejected the report, saying she was in Washington to meet her children. “What we’re seeing is the systematic killing or silencing of anyone who stands up to the institutionalisation of a militarised Islamist state, who advocates positive relations with the West or stands up for tolerance,” Ispahani was quoted as telling The Sunday Times.