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Thursday, July 12, 2012
Haqqani rules out return without proper securityBy Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: In a letter expected to be placed before the Supreme Court on Thursday (today), Professor Husain Haqqani has stated that he would come to Pakistan only after threats to his life have been seriously dealt with. “I will not risk my life until the circumstances that have put my life in jeopardy have changed,” he declared, adding, “Given the current mood and environment in the country, where individuals are being burned alive on unproved charges of blasphemy and ethnic, political and sectarian killings are going unnoticed, it is unreasonable to pressure me to return to the country to respond to political accusations based on the word of one foreigner.”
The former ambassador to the United States, who is currently professor of international relations at Boston University and a senior fellow at Hudson Institute in the US, wrote in his letter, “I have neither been charged or tried nor convicted of any crime under the laws of Pakistan and yet I have been painted as a criminal in the eyes of the general public.” He said that the media had painted him “variously as a ‘traitor’, ‘Pakistan’s Benedict Arnold’, and ‘disloyal to the Pakistani state’”, insisting that these were extreme characterisations by people who disagreed with him politically.
Haqqani said he received threats to his life every day from extremist elements in Pakistan who questioned his religious and political views. Referring to the memo commission, whom he criticised for going out of its way to persecute him, Haqqani said, “The highly incendiary language used by the commission in its partisan report has increased the threats to my safety and security in case of returning to Pakistan.”
“Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who also is currently leading the Adlia Bachao Tehreek (Save the Judiciary Campaign) and claims to speak for Pakistan’s establishment, has publicly declared me a traitor,” Haqqani wrote. “Another politician close to the establishment and one who also served as a minister in the previous government headed by the then army chief General Pervez Musharraf, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed, has gone on national television to call me ‘Ghaddar ibne Ghaddar’ (traitor son of traitors) without being rebuked by any judicial or judicious authority.”
The former envoy went on to argue that “both Imran Khan and Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed have shared the public stage with groups and leaders described internationally as terrorists. Their pronouncements are, therefore, to be seen as potential incitement to their supporters in jihadist terrorist organisations to eliminate me as a voice for a liberal and tolerant Pakistan”.
Detailing the circumstances of his resignation and return to Pakistan in November last year, Haqqani complained that until January 31, when he left the country after being allowed by the Supreme Court to travel abroad, no serious effort was made by the memo commission to collect evidence or find facts. “I appeared in person before the commission on January 9 and was represented in its proceedings by counsel that I engaged at my cost. Instead of trying to find facts, the commission waited until February 23, 2012 for Mansoor Ijaz’s statement from London by video-conference,” he pointed out.
Haqqani argued that his assurance to return at a four-day notice was no longer applicable because “the commission’s decision to facilitate Mansoor Ijaz by recording his statement by videoconference lacked transparency as it denied me the opportunity to request the same before the Supreme Court, leading me to give the Supreme Court an assurance based on lack of knowledge of the commission’s intentions”.
According to Husain Haqqani, there was a serious threat to his life from several quarters. “These include the operatives of the several intelligence services with which my sole accuser Mansoor Ijaz claims to have relations; extremists and terrorists who claim to have monopoly over being true Muslims and Pakistanis; some vigilante or angry man provoked by the hostile comments of politicians, commentators and commission members questioning my loyalty to Pakistan; and members of the permanent state apparatus who may have played a role in my ouster from the office of ambassador,” he claimed.
The former ambassador said that “as someone belonging to the middle class who must earn a living by teaching, researching and writing, I cannot afford to waste the opportunities of my livelihood by travelling back to participate in an exercise that does not conform to the definition of due process of law. I have not been charged or tried under the law and if I am to be condemned on the basis of a roving probe, the probe can always come to me wherever I am”.
He also hinted at threats from elements within the state apparatus. “The manner in which the then ISI DG took it upon himself to act in implicating me in the origins of the memo gives me a strong reason not to trust the current state machinery in my protection. I will need extra assurances and manifestations thereof before I can put my trust in being protected by those who deem themselves super-patriots and the only guardians of Pakistan or its ideology.”
Haqqani concluded that the “only situation in which I envisage myself returning to the country is after I have been afforded an opportunity to defend myself with due process of law and lift the poisoned atmosphere created against me”. He said, “I have an obligation to my family and children. I cannot and will not take a risk with my life and personal security under the present circumstances.”
The former ambassador also said that “the failure of the state, including the superior judiciary, in protecting the lives of those killed and dumped in Balochistan do not inspire much confidence about its ability to ensure my security upon return to Pakistan”.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk