Husain Haqqani—File Photo
Husain Haqqani—File Photo

The global fighting stage has changed substantially over the period of years where war fields have engulfed the world of internet. It started off when Nato and Isaf combated with Taliban on Twitter by contradicting on the fatalities after an attack, capturing of an alleged insurgent and other statements which were only intended to demean one another. However, the move changed the dynamics of the new-age wars and controversies greatly.

The famous and one of the most controversial scandals in Pakistan is associated with Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani who is known to be an active twitter user. After the memo commission’s hearing on June 12, 2012 in which Attorney General Irfan Qadir declared Haqqani as a disloyal citizen and said that the memo was actually authored by him, invited a stream of tweets from the former ambassador.

Haqqani tweeted that the findings of the commission were one-sided and went on to say that people who let military dictators amend constitution cannot talk about loyalty and patriotism.

Whilst the commission was making the findings of the report public, Haqqani himself was addressing his own court.

The judiciary of Pakistan and Haqqani were making statements, however, the recipients and perspectives of the both differed significantly. Whilst the commission addressed the people of Pakistan and provided them with an account of the findings, Haqqani continues to dissect the situation by attributing it as a move to politicise the general course of events.

With over 40,000 followers, who are either in a love or hate relationship with the former ambassador, Haqqani has turned into a huge celebrity. According to the recent internet trends, memo scandal and Hussain Haqqani are the most talked about topics in Pakistan, with memo being second and Haqqani securing the sixth position.

The analysis and the minute-by-minute account of the case and Haqqani’s stance over each and every allegation can be rightly considered as a war between Pakistan’s judiciary and himself, with latter’s responses being close to a testimony—one that he claims he did not have during the case.

It is too early to ascertain the actual intentions of the former ambassador, however, it can be said that through this move he aims to win an audience and reach out to the judiciary as well which according to him was always inaccessible and refused to entertain him fairly.

The tweets that followed his statements from different Pakistanis ranged from accusing him of treason to hailing him as one of the most righteous figures of our time.

Many of his fellow twitteratis question him on when does he intend to return to his homeland. However, with Supreme Court of Pakistan declaring United States as Haqqani’s homeland and he himself calling Pakistan as his own, one wonders which declaration to consider more credible.

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