RAWALPINDI: Following the Supreme Court’s directives, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought perpetual arrest warrants for Hussain Haqqani, former ambassador to the United States, to bring him back to the country.

The director general FIA is proceeding to Interpol headquarters in Paris to attend a top level summit where he will try to obtain red warrants for the former envoy, who is the main accused in Memogate Scandal.

“In addition to participating in the conference as a member of Interpol, DG FIA Bashir Memon will also try to obtain red warrants for Mr Haqqani to bring him back to the country,” a senior official of FIA said adding that the DG would later proceed to the United States in connection with the same issue.

He said the FIA had asked the relevant court of law to issue perpetual arrest warrants for Mr Haqqani which would help in seeking red notices.

He said since Mr Haqqani’s wife was an American national, he might have been holding American nationality which may create hurdle for the Pakistani authorities to bring him back.

However, the DG FIA had assured the Supreme Court that a case would be registered in the US if Mr Haqqani refused to return to Pakistan.

The senior office of the FIA said that according to the standard operating procedure, the FIA needed an arrest warrant issued by the court and other relevant documents regarding the case to get red warrants from Interpol.

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani and gave a 30-day deadline to the authorities to bring him back after which no excuse would be accepted.

The SC had already directed Mr Haqqani to appear before the court in Memogate case but he failed to comply with the orders.

The ‘memo’ in question, delivered to a high-ranking American official allegedly at Haqqani’s behest in May 2011, had exposed serious rifts between the PPP government and the army after a US-based businessman Mansoor Ijaz brought it to light.

It was delivered to a high-ranking official and asked for help for the civilian government against the military because of the domestic turmoil triggered by the US raid that killed Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

Haqqani, however, had denied having anything to do with the memo.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2018