Shah slams Haqqani, calls former ambassador a 'traitor'

ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Monday labelled Husain Haqqani a 'traitor', saying the former Pakistan ambassador was trying to gain the attention of the Trump administration.

"This man [Haqqani] is not worthy of being debated on in Parliament. He is seeking to gain the attention of the US administration by issuing such statements," said Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah, who represents the same party that Haqqani was formerly affiliated with.

Haqqani, who had been the ambassador to the United States during former Pakistan People's Party regime, recently stated that he had facilitated the presence of large number of CIA operatives in Pakistan to track down Osama bin Laden.

In his article published in The Washington Post, Husain Haqqani disclosed, "In November 2011, I was forced to resign as ambassador after Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus gained the upper hand in the country’s perennial power struggle. Among the security establishment’s grievances against me was the charge that I had facilitated the presence of large numbers of CIA operatives who helped track down bin Laden without the knowledge of Pakistan’s army — even though I had acted under the authorisation of Pakistan’s elected civilian leaders."

The former ambassador referred to the then president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as his "civilian leaders".

His article stated: "The relationships I forged with members of Obama’s campaign team also led to closer cooperation between Pakistan and the United States in fighting terrorism over the 31/2  years I served as ambassador. These connections eventually enabled the United States to discover and eliminate bin Laden without depending on Pakistan’s intelligence service or military, which were suspected of sympathy toward Islamist militants."

Bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad by US commandos in a night raid on May 2, 2011. The Pakistani government claimed it had not been consulted over the raid, and called it called a violation of the country's sovereignty.

Haqqani's claims have caused uproar in Pakistan, with even some of his former party fellows rebuffing them and painting him as a traitor.

On the other hand, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said US citizens had been issued visas under a formal procedure and none of the agencies had questioned the issuance of visas at that time, for they were issued according to rules and regulations.

He said that, as spokesperson of then-president Asif Ali Zardari, he bears witness to all affairs of that time.

Haqqani, on the contrary, says the PPP is criticising him to save itself.