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ISLAMABAD: Admitting Nawaz Sharif's petition on the memogate scandal for hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued notices to the president, the army chief and others party to the case, DawnNews reported.
The court moreover directed the authorities to submit a report on the issue in 15 days' time along with barring Husain Haqqani from leaving the country.
A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry issued the directive.
During the hearing, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s chief Nawaz Sharif told the court that the secret memo was approved by the country’s top political leadership.
He further said that if a similar scandal had propped up during his government, he would have tendered his resignation.
Sharif claimed that a force was stopping Pakistan’s parliament from functioning independently.
During the proceeding, Justice Jawad Khwaja said that the memo scandal was so far based on assumptions and determining the facts of the matter was obligatory.
Moreover, Justice Saqib Nisar questioned whether the memo case fell under the jurisdiction of the court or that of the parliament.
Responding to which, Sharif said that the parliament was not functional and was only passing resolutions. He added that the parliament was not going to do anything regarding the scandal.
Chief Justice Iftikhar said the scandal had civil and military implications and that military courts had the authority to act on the information.
He further said that newspapers had been reporting that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had investigated the issue, adding that Husain Haqqani’s resignation did not prove the charges that were being levelled.
Also, Sharif asked the court to summon every individual suspected of involvement in the case to determine where the responsibility lay.
