ISLAMABAD - Even after the registration of a case against former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani in the Memogate scandal, it is unlikely that the Federal Investigation Agency will succeed in bringing him back through Interpol because the latter does not intervene in political matters.
The government on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that the FIA is considering registering an FIR against the former ambassador in a move to bring him back and try him in the Memogate case.
Interpol’s charter forbids it from undertaking interventions in activities of a political, military, religious or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters.
According to the charter, Interpol’s work focuses primarily on public safety and battling transnational crimes against humanity, child pornography, computer crime and cybercrime, drug trafficking, environmental crime, genocide, human trafficking, illicit drug production, copyright infringement, illicit traffic in works of art, intellectual property crime, money laundering, organized crime, corruption, terrorism, war crimes, weapons smuggling and the white-collar crime.
A former FIA official, who remained associated with the agency’s legal wing for years, said that it was unlikely that Interpol would proceed against Haqqani as the case was political in nature. "Interpol does not proceed in such cases that are political in nature,” he said adding that the case of Muttahida Qaumi Movement founder Altaf Hussain is a fine example in this connection.
The government has informed the apex court that the FIA had written to the Interpol for issuing red warrants for Haqqani but the international police had raised certain objections to the request. Certain pre-requisites had to be met before the Interpol issued red notices.
On February 15, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed Chief Justice Saqib Nisar issued a warrant for arresting Haqqani in the Memogate case, asking the government to take measures to bring him back.
Haqqani was implicated in the Memogate case for allegedly writing a memorandum to US Admiral Mike Mullen seeking the US intervention alleging that the army intended to topple the then Pakistan People’s Party government in the aftermath of May 1, 2010, US raid in Abbottabad that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Haqqani had left the country when former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was hearing the Memogate case against him and the court had formed a commission to probe charges against him. Later, the commission held him guilty in its findings but he never returned to Pakistan to face the allegations against him.
Haqqani was allowed to leave the country by the Supreme Court in 2012 after he gave a commitment to the apex court that he would return to the country whenever the court asked for.