Abbottabad Commission report unveils Haqqani’s role in May 2 attack: Justice Javed

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Abbottabad Commission Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal has said that what Hussain Haqqani has revealed now is not a surprise for the Commission, which in detail discussed the character and role played by the former ambassador of Pakistan.

Without revealing the details, the chairman Abbottabad Commission told The News that the Commission was well aware of what role Haqqani had played and the fact of his facilitation toward the May 2, 2011 episode…

“Had I not been under the oath because of the relevant provision of Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 1956, I would have unveiled the reality,” Justice ® Javed Iqbal said. In his latest article, published of late in The Washington Post, Haqqani has not only confessed that he had facilitated the presence of a large number of CIA operatives in Pakistan to track down bin Laden but also implicated top PPP leadership. Haqqani said that he had acted under the authorization of Pakistan’s elected civilian leaders -- the then President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Haqqani in his article wrote that for the arrival of US intelligence officials in Pakistan he had contacted the top Pakistani “civilian leaders” and got their approval. Regarding the May 2 Abbottabad operation, he did not deny that he or his “civilian leaders” were not informed but meaningfully said, “the United States kept us officially out of the loop about the operation”. Haqqani emphasis was that “officially” Pakistan was not informed.

Haqqani precisely wrote, “Friends I made from the Obama campaign were able to ask, three years later, as National Security Council officials, for help in stationing U.S. Special Operations and intelligence personnel on the ground in Pakistan. I brought the request directly to Pakistan’s civilian leaders, who approved. Although the United States kept us officially out of the loop about the operation, these locally stationed Americans proved invaluable when Obama decided to send in Navy SEAL Team 6 without notifying Pakistan.”

Linking his “civilian leaders” in what he has now confessed, Haqqani said, “The civilian leaders who appointed me as ambassador — President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani — looked forward to U.S. backing in reversing Musharraf’s policies at home and abroad. They said they wanted to end Pakistan’s support for the Taliban, improve relations with India and Afghanistan, and limit the role of Pakistan’s military intelligence service in defining the country’s foreign policy. In return, they sought generous U.S. aid to improve the ailing Pakistani economy.”

He added, “Among the security establishment’s grievances against me was the charge that I had facilitated the presence of large numbers of CIA operatives who helped track down bin Laden without the knowledge of Pakistan’s army — even though I had acted under the authorization of Pakistan’s elected civilian leaders.” 

PPP central leader Sherry Rehman rejected Haqqani’s admissions and said that the former ambassador might have said this owing to latent pressures. However, there is no rebuttal or clarification issued either by Asif Ali Zardari or Yousaf Raza Gillani. 

Already Memo Commission in its 121-page report had concluded that Haqqani was the architect and originator of the Memo and that his acts were of disloyalty to Pakistan that contravened the Constitution of Pakistan. The Commission had found Haqqani a kind of character who could not be trusted and was full of double standards.