WASHINGTON, June 12: Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said on Tuesday that he refused to let his patriotism be judged by those who had endorsed martial law regimes and had even given the right to military dictators to amend the Constitution.

Responding to the Memo Commission report, which found him guilty of writing the memo, Mr Haqqani said the conclusion was “political and one-sided”.

“The commission’s report has been released to distract attention from other more embarrassing developments,” he said, alluding to the allegations relating to the Chief Justice’s son Arsalan Chaudhry.

Mr Haqqani said he had nothing to do with the memo and the commission might have come to a different conclusion if it had heard him out, which it did not.

“The entire proceeding reflected the political machination of ideological elements including the judiciary and had little to do with fact finding,” he added. “The commission has based its findings on the claims of one man, a foreigner, and dubious records presented by him, which were reinforced by an equally dubious exercise termed as forensics.” Mr Haqqani insisted that it was absurd to call showing the accuser’s electronic devices to an expert of his choice at the Pakistan High Commission in London a forensics examination.

He pointed out that the memo issue had been based on newspaper clippings and the Supreme Court had created the commission amid an orchestrated media campaign against him.

“The commission’s head bent over backwards to accommodate the instigator of false claims while denying every request by me and my counsel.” He noted that the commission was created as a fact-finding body and not as a trial court so it had no right to pronounce anyone guilty or innocent of any crime.

“Similarly, the Supreme Court of Pakistan cannot act as a trial court and must not abuse its authority as the court of final appeal to divert attention from the embarrassment of its politicised leadership,” he said.—Anwar Iqbal