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Today's Paper | December 16, 2024

Published 05 Oct, 2018 07:08pm

Perpetual arrest warrants issued for former US envoy Hussain Haqqani

Perpetual arrest warrants were issued on Friday for former envoy to the United States Hussain Haqqani, to bring him back to the country, based on the findings of a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report, DawnNewsTV reported.

The FIA had registered a case against Haqqani in March for committing "criminal breach of trust, misuse of authority and embezzlement of funds".

The former US envoy is the principal accused in the Memogate scandal.

A hearing in the matter was held on Friday which was presided by special judge central, Irum Niazi.

According to the FIA report, Haqqani was also involved in the misappropriation of embassy funds to the tune of $2 million.

The report observes that the former envoy has purposely gone into hiding and mentions that a notification of summons had already been pasted outside his residence in Karachi.

An FIA official had earlier said that Haqqani’s wife was an American national, he might also be holding American nationality which may create a hurdle for the Pakistani authorities to bring him back.

In March, the official had 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 has already directed Haqqani to appear before the court in Memogate case but he has repeatedly 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.

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