Date December 1 ,2011
The SC barred former Pakistani ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani from leaving the country.
A larger bench of the Supreme Court after initial hearing asked all the parties including President Asif Ali Zardari, ISI Chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to submit their reply in 15 days.
The apex court also constituted a judicial commission headed by Registrar of the Supreme Court Tariq Khosa to probe into memo scandal.
The SC admitted the petition for regular hearing. The court in its order said Article 5 of the constitution binds every citizen to be faithful to the country and the memo raised questions over country’s sovereignty. Action should be taken against those involved, the order said.
Rehman Malik’s statement was made part of court order in which he said that the communication was between the ambassador and US citizen.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that memogate is both of civil and criminal in nature and parliament can review only civil matter.
Mian Nawaz Sharif, one of the petitioners, informed the bench that his counsel Fakhar-ud-Din G. Ibrahim could not appear in the court due to illness and his son wanted to give arguments. He was allowed to do so.
Opening his arguments Mian Nawaz Sharif said he was God fearing democratic person. People are extremely worried over the prevailing situation of the country, he added. Scandals upon scandals of the incumbent government are coming to open, he stated.
He submitted Hussain Haqqani had tendered resignation in connection with memogate issue. Mansoor Ejaz had confirmed that memo had been written at the behest and with the approval of top functionaries of Pakistan. Text of this memo had been released and US and Mike Mullen had confirmed it, he informed.
Continuing with his arguments Nawaz Sharif said opposition had played pivotal role in making the parliament functional. But parliament had never been taken on board on major national issues, he argued. Government never implements parliament resolutions, he pleaded. A resolution was adopted after 2 months of occurrence of Abbottabad incident but it has not been implemented so far, he said. It has been learnt from media that nothing has been done so far in this respect, he pointed out.
It has to be seen an ambassador can send a letter to a US army officer on whose behest, he argued. "I request the court all stakeholders including President Asif Ali Zardari be summoned in the court", he prayed. "We have brought this matter in SC after due consideration", he said. Any one will investigate the matter, he said. If this government will conduct inquiry against itself, he questioned.
Nawaz said he had not come to the court to give statement against the President Asif Ali Zardari.
Justice Saqib Nisar said "we are grateful to you as you have reposed trust on judiciary. We have to review legal points of your petition. Several things don t fall in court s jurisdiction. If this memo proves true then it will be tantamount to violation of constitution. Basically this matter falls in the purview of parliaments.
The CJP remarked "this case has criminal aspect which has no relevance with parliament. The case of Richard Nixon when came to US Supreme Court then the court had issued directives for collecting forensic evidence. Richard Nixon had sought immunity. But when the matter came to open then Nixon had resigned from his office".
He observed "Rehman Malik gave statement that no letter had been written but only exchange of messages had occurred. In this context it was written in newspaper government needs not to find out its enemies.
The CJP remarked it had been learnt that Hussain Haqqani had given resignation but it had not been verified so far if he had tendered resignation on his own or on the bidding of someone else.
During the hearing Justice Jawad S Khawaja inquired from Nawaz Sharif what action had been taken by the parliament on this matter. Nawaz Sharif told the court parliament had initiated no action on this count so far.
Barrister Zafar Ullah while giving arguments on the application filed by Wattan party said memo written to Mullen had been delivered to him by May, 10. He requested the court to constitute judicial commission to probe into this matter besides declaring Mansoor Ejaz persona non grata.
Upon it the court expressed its displeasure saying court could not issue such directives.
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