Pakistani Court: Former Ambassador Authored Controversial Memo

Posted June 12th, 2012 at 6:40 am (UTC-5)
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Pakistan's Supreme Court says the country's former ambassador to the United States unquestionably authored a memo last year seeking U.S. help in reining in the military.

In its ruling Tuesday, the court said Husain Haqqani wanted to make himself “indispensable to the Americans” and committed acts of disloyalty to Pakistan.

It said that in the memo, Haqqani wanted to lead a civilian national security team set up with U.S. help, questioned the security of the country's nuclear arsenal and said Pakistan's military intelligence agency maintained ties with the Taliban.

Haqqani told a Supreme Court commission in January that he had “no role in creating, drafting and/or delivering” the memo to Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military official at the time.

The court has ordered Haqqani to appear in two weeks.

The scandal heightened tensions between Pakistan's government and military.

It emerged in October of last year when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote a column in The Financial Times accusing Haqqani of writing the memo. The request was reportedly sent to Mullen last May, following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the garrison Pakistani town of Abbottabad.