ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The country’s former ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, appeared before the Abbottabad inquiry commission on Tuesday and said that whatever he did during his three-and-a-half year service was in the line of Islamabad’s instructions.

The former envoy focused his statement on two specific issues —‘the aftermath of the May 2 operation’ and ‘issuing of visas to Americans by the Pakistani embassy in Washington’.

One of the interesting aspects of his statement was that he revealed the US officials were intransigent after the Abbottabad operation and their tone was ‘threatening’ because they believed Pakistan was somehow complicit or responsible for Osama bin Laden’s stay in Pakistan.

The inquiry commission, headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, held a detailed interactive session also with some retired military officers, including Gen (retd) Asad Durani, Gen (retd) Ehsan-ul-Haq, Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi and Lt-Gen (retd) Nasim Rana.

Other members of the commission, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed and Abbas Khan also attended the meeting.

The commission had already linked the Abbottabad incident with the memo scam as its chairman had said in a recent press conference that the two incidents might have some link because the memo was written a couple of days after the May 2 operation.

“In the aftermath of May 2, my embassy and I acted fully in accordance with my directions as received from the Foreign Office.

“The voluminous record of our correspondence with the ministry of foreign affairs should serve as evidence thereof,” he said.