SC hears Haqqani's video link facility plea

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will take up a petition, filed by Pakistani's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, seeking equal opportunity for recording his statement through a video-link from London as it was done in the case of Mansoor Ijaz, the central character in memogate.

A 10-member special bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will hear the petition. This petition was filed before the judicial commission, probing the memo controversy by Haqqaniís counsel Syed Zahid Hussain Bukhari. It was also filed before the Supreme Court on March 24 by Haqqani, through his counsel Asma Jahangir. The judicial commission had rejected the application and directed Haqqani to personally appear before it. The same application was pending before the Supreme Court as well for adjudication, for which the chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry constituted a 10-judge special bench to hear the petition today.

Earlier, Haqqani's lawyer Asma Jahangir had requested the SC that she was abroad and would return to Pakistan on April 16 and, therefore, Haqqani's application should be heard on any day after her return. In view of her plea, the court had decided to hear the case on April 19 but later Akram Sheikh, the counsel for Mansoor Ijaz, requested the court to take up Haqqani’s plea after April 20 as he was abroad.

In her application, Asma had requested that the commission be directed to allow Haqqani to record his statement via videoconference “just as it had allowed Mansoor Ijaz to do the same”.

According to the application, Haqqani had sought permission to leave the country “in view of the non-appearance [before the commission] of respondent Mansoor Ijaz and as such the petitioner could not be kept indefinitely waiting for other respondents to give evidence”.

The application also said that Haqqani “continues to cooperate with the proceedings of the commission. He is enjoying a peaceful life and suffered irreparable loss of health and resources owing to the high-pitched proceedings and allegations levelled against him”.