FIA may launch probe against Haqqani for misusing secret funds

ISLAMABAD: The federal government informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) might register a case against Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, acknowledging that six years after Memogate came to light, no criminal charges had been filed against Haqqani.

Approached by The News, Additional Attorney General Waqar Rana said that on the directions of the apex court, a request was sent to the Interpol, but it was returned with the demand to provide complete details regarding judicial proceedings in case against Haqqani. Rana said apparently, there was no such crime in the Memo Commission Report using which a strong case could be made for seeking assistance of the Interpol for issuance of red warrants. “There is one thing that Haqqani assured the SC that he will appear before it on a four day notice, but he failed to appear. A contempt of court case can be made against him but there is maximum six months punishment for this crime and Interpol rules require that there must be a crime against the fugitive having punishment of minimum two years under the law. So this will not help,” Rana told The News, adding that deliberations were in progress and every possible step would be taken to comply with the orders of the supreme court.

Article 84 of Interpol rules on the processing of data reads: “The requesting National Central Bureau or am international entity shall ensure that: (1) the authority which issued the arrest warrant or handed down the judicial decision has the necessary power; (2) the red notice request has been coordinated with the relevant authorities responsible for extradition, and assurances have been given that extradition will be sought upon arrest of the person in conformity with national laws and/or the applicable bilateral and multilateral treaties; (3) if the arrest warrant has not been issued by a judicial authority, the laws of the requesting country or the rules governing the operation of the international entity provide for a mechanism of appeal before a judicial authority.”

It is important to mention that keeping aside the fact that there is no crime mentioned in the Memo Commission Report that can attract application of Interpol rules, there is no right to appeal before any judicial authority in the case being heard by the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

On the other hand, FIA sources told The News that to comply with the SC orders for issuance of Red Warrants against Haqqani and after finding no such criminal allegation which could be used to convince Interpol, the FIA was considering initiating an inquiry into the matter of alleged misuse of ‘secret funds’ by Haqqani as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US. The Memo Commission Report has alleged that Haqqani used $8 million during his tenure in Washington and failed to give details of the expenditure during the proceedings of the commission. The FIA sources said there was pressure from some powerful circles to register a high treason case against Haqqani. These circles were informed that high treason was considered a case of political nature and Interpol would never help if such a case was registered, so the idea was dropped after permission from these circles.

Regarding the allegation of misuse of ‘secret funds’, Husain Haqqani had informed the Memo Commission that Secret Service Funds (SSF) were used in the Pakistan Embassy as per rules. Haqqani had stated that revealing where they were spent would only compromise the undercover operations conducted by covert services.

The most important thing is that the use of secret funds in foreign missions is a matter of routine and these are used with the consent of or by the officials of secret agencies deputed in these missions. It is also a well-known fact that details of such expenditure are never disclosed and these funds are not audited. But all records and files are maintained and can be checked by the relevant authorities. According to official sources, the record of this SSF expenditure made during the tenure of Haqqani is also present in the Pakistan Embassy. Haqqani had no access to this record after being called to Pakistan and resigning from his office. It is astonishing that no one from the Pakistan government, the foreign office or institutions concerned has ever examined this record during the last six years.

The SC three-judge bench was informed by Waqar Rana on Tuesday that although the FIA had written to Interpol regarding the issuance of Haqqani’s red warrant, the agency had not issued the warrant and raised certain queries. The FIA requires some time to fulfil Interpol’s requirements which include providing details of a crime that Interpol considers a crime, he added. Rana also requested the CJP to hear the matter in his chamber because of Haqqani’s ‘lobby’ abroad. He did not acknowledge that Interpol’s refusal to act against Haqqani is because the international body does not act on political matters.

The chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) accepted the plea and asked the AAG and the petitioner to appear in his chamber on Tuesday, making it clear that he would not be influenced by any lobby.

On February 15, the SC had issued arrest warrants for Haqqani. The court had directed Haqqani to appear in the Memogate case but he failed to comply with the court orders.

The Memogate was so far a constitutional issue and not a criminal case, legal experts pointed out.

Cases were registered against Husain Haqqani under Sections 120b (hatching a criminal conspiracy) and 121a (waging a war against Pakistan) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Apparently, this move was meant to settle some scores against Haqqani because of his consistent criticism against some policies. Neither charge falls under the purview of Interpol. According to the international criminal police organization, Interpol’s charter forbids it from undertaking interventions or activities of a political, military, religious or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters.

Interpol’s work focuses primarily on public safety and battling transnational crimes against humanity, child pornography, computer crime and cybercrime, drug trafficking, environmental crime, genocide, human trafficking, illicit drug production, copyright infringement, illicit traffic in works of art, intellectual property crime, money laundering, organized crime, corruption, terrorism, war crimes, weapons smuggling, and white-collar crime.

It is significant that Pervez Musharraf who is facing a treason trial before a special court and a case of high treason has been established against him beyond an iota of doubt, still no court, including the SC, is passing any orders to seek Interpol help to bring the alleged traitor and former dictator back to Pakistan. The July 31, 2009 judgement of the apex court on Sindh High Court Bar Association Vs Federation clearly held General Musharraf a usurper and termed his November 3, 2007 act of imposing emergency and imprisoning SC judges unconstitutional and an act of high treason.