Apex court bars Haqqani from leaving country

Pakistan's Supreme Court barred the nation's former ambassador to the US from leaving the country as it investigates claims he sought US help in heading off a feared military coup earlier this year. Petitioners headed by opposition leader Nawaz Sharif approached the top court after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on November 22 ordered Hussain Haqqani to resign as envoy before any investigation to prove wrongdoing. Analysts in Washington and Islamabad said his dismissal was a concession by civilian leaders to quell the military's fury over the ensuing scandal. "The court has also asked the president and the army chief to submit their replies on the case within 15 days," Khawaja Asif, one of the petitioners and a lawmaker from the main opposition party led by Sharif, said in comments broadcast live by television networks. Haqqani's removal weakened the civilian government of Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari in its relationship with Pakistan's politically powerful military, according to analysts such as former US ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin. Extended legal turmoil around Haqqani may further hurt Zardari's political position. Haqqani has served as a Zardari adviser and in the 1990s as spokesman to his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Also, Haqqani's wife, Farahnaz Ispahani, is a spokeswoman for Zardari. A Pakistani-American businessman, Mansour Ejaz, has alleged he helped Haqqani deliver a message from Zardari to the then- chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. Haqqani denies the allegations. The memo, which Mullen's spokesman said the chairman ignored because he gave it no credence, sought American pressure to prevent Pakistan's army from seizing power after the US conducted the raid that killed Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden without informing Pakistan, humiliating the security establishment. Ejaz wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Times last month alleging that in the memo the civilian government said it would replace Pakistani military and intelligence officials with officers compliant with US demands to sever the military's ties with the Taliban and other Islamic militant groups.