Washington: Even as there is a sense of positivity over Indo-Pak ties after the outcome of Pakistan polls, a former Pakistani diplomat believes a regime change is unlikely to bring any substantial shift in Islamabad's approach. Former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani noted this while giving an analysis of the post-election scenario in Pakistan.
"We will have a kind of a hug-hug, embrace-embrace, but no substantial changed attitude towards India," he said. According to the reports in Pakistani media, Sharif has invited Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his swearing in ceremony.
"I think Nawaz Sharif will move to have relatively better relations with India, at least at a superficial level, cricket matches, cultural exchanges, speaking to Punjabis in Punjabi, on the Indian side," Haqqani said in response to a question. "But strategically, will he say, let's put Kashmir on the back burner and move forward? I don't see that happening. Will he say that we need to actually implement the Most Favoured Nation agreement that the PPP reached, which has been held in a sort of limbo by the military?" Haqqani questioned.
The former diplomat said developments like setting up of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Kargil war have always contradicted Sharif's intentions of having good ties with India....
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09:21 AM, May 14, 2013
Washington: Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, on Tuesday dismissed the memo commission's report and launched a veiled attack on the judiciary claiming the findings were made public to divert the attention from from "more embarrassing developments". The commission had concluded that Haqqani was behind a mysterious memo that sought US help to stave off a feared coup and said he was "not loyal" to the country while...
01:56 PM, Jun 12, 2012
New Delhi: A report submitted in Pakistan's Supreme Court by the judicial commission probing the Memogate scandal has claimed that former envoy to the United States Husain Haqqani had authored the confidential memo. Pakistan Supreme Court has directed Haqqani to appear before it in two weeks. The Supreme Court has issued the notices to all the respondents of memo scandal including Haqqani. It has adjourned the hearing in the memo...
11:11 AM, Jun 12, 2012
Islamabad: Former ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha told a Pakistani judicial commission on Thursday that the military had not planned a coup after the US raid in Abottabad that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May last year. "If there was a threat, the ISI would have known about it," Pasha said while deposing before the commission that is investigating a mysterious memo that had sought US help...
12:41 AM, Apr 06, 2012
Islamabad: Controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, a key figure in the memo scandal, on Friday claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had advance information of the US military raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad last year. Ijaz further claimed that Zardari had telephoned army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on the day of the US raid and asked him not to use F-16 combat jets to...
05:26 PM, Mar 02, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have finalised arrangements to record via a video link from London the testimony of American businessman Mansoor Ijaz regarding a mysterious memo that had sought US help to stave off a possible coup last year. Zahid Bukhari, the lawyer of Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, and two of his associates were issued British visas on Tuesday to go to London to cross-examine Ijaz. Haqqani...
08:30 AM, Feb 22, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani on Tuesday left for the US after the Supreme Court eased travel restrictions that were imposed on him after he was implicated in the memo scandal. Haqqani travelled from the Prime Minister's House, where he was living for the past few weeks, to the international airport in Rawalpindi along with a large security detail early this morning. He did not talk...
12:14 PM, Jan 31, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday further eased tension in the country's worst crisis in civilian-military ties since a 1999 coup by lifting a travel ban on a former envoy to Washington, who angered the generals after the emergence of a murky memo. Husain Haqqani was barred from leaving the country in December by the Supreme Court, which is investigating the memo that sought US help in reining in Pakistan's...
01:58 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan government is unlikely to grant another extension to ISI chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, whose current term in office ends in March, sources said on Monday. It is believed that the government's decision has largely been influenced by Pasha's role in the standoff between the military and the civilian government over the alleged memo that had sought US help to stave off a feared coup in Pakistan...
06:21 PM, Jan 30, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday lifted a travel ban on the country's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, as it gave the judicial commission two more months to complete its probe in the memo scandal that rocked ties between the civilian government and the military. The top court also said that the panel would decide on controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz's request to record his statement outside the...
04:38 PM, Jan 30, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani was on Monday permitted to travel abroad by the Supreme Court, which is probing a memo sent to Washington saying President Asif Ali Zardari had feared a military take over in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing last year. Haqqani's counsel, Asma Jahangir, had pleaded for allowing the former envoy to travel abroad. The nine-member bench said that Haqqani will...
11:55 AM, Jan 30, 2012
New Delhi: Mansoor Ijaz, the businessman and the alleged courier in the memogate row, has alleged that he is being threatened by the Pakistan government representatives. Ijaz's counsel, Akram Sheikh in a written statement to the Judicial Commission, said that the businessman's arrival could have led to a clash between the Government and the Army. Ijaz, an American of Pakistani origin who triggered a confrontation between Pakistan's civilian government and...
12:02 PM, Jan 24, 2012
Islamabad: Fearing arrest and claiming that a "trap" has been laid for him, controversial businessman Mansoor Ijaz, on Monday said he would not visit Pakistan to depose before a judicial panel probing the memo scandal and wants his testimony to be recorded either in London or Zurich. Ijaz, an American of Pakistani origin who triggered a confrontation between Pakistan's civilian government and the powerful military by making public a secret...
08:45 PM, Jan 23, 2012
Islamabad: Former Pakistan's ambassador to US Husain Haqqani on Monday said that the right of Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to depose before a judicial panel probing the memo scandal should be withdrawn if he failed to appear before the panel on Tuesday. In an application filed with the three-judge commission appointed by the Supreme Court, Haqqani said Ijaz should lose his right to testify on the memo issue if he...
07:50 PM, Jan 23, 2012
New Delhi: Research in Motion (RIM), the Canada-based Blackberry phone service provider, has reportedly refused to release the records of phone calls and text messages between Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz and former Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, both embroiled in the raging memogate scandal rocking the country. The judicial commission investigating the scandal had asked the government to send a formal request to RIM through the Canadian High...
10:42 AM, Jan 16, 2012
Islamabad: Controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz could fly into a military airbase in Rawalpindi and granted a visa on arrival so that he can testify tomorrow before a judicial commission probing the memo scandal, according to a media report today. Ijaz's lawyer has said he will testify before the Supreme Court-appointed commission that is investigating the memo scandal on Monday. "Arrangements have been finalised for his chartered flight (at Chaklala...
02:48 PM, Jan 15, 2012
Islamabad: The Pakistani judicial commission investigating the memo scandal on Monday directed the government to issue a visa to Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz so that he could come to the country and appear before the panel. The three-judge commission formed by the Supreme Court to probe the alleged memo directed authorities to provide a visa to Ijaz as soon as his application is receieved, and the required security when he...
03:44 PM, Jan 09, 2012
Islamabad: Amidst continuing tensions between Pakistan's government and the powerful army over the memo scandal, President Asif Ali Zardari has said that no one had sought his resignation to defuse the political crisis, making light of suggestions that the military had offered him an "escape" route. "No one has asked for my resignation till now, I'll tell you when they ask for it," Zardari said in his first interview after...
04:31 PM, Jan 08, 2012
Islamabad: In an apparent bid to reach a truce with the Army over the Memogate scandal, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said that the government was not at war with the Army. "We are not at war with the military. There is no war. This is part of evolution. It will evolve and simmer down. He further defended his prime minister saying that Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's remarks...
11:08 AM, Jan 07, 2012
Islamabad: A lawyer representing Pakistani American businessman Mansoor Ijaz Friday submitted his BlackBerry personal identification number to the commission probing the memo scandal. The commission had sought phone records related to the memo controversy from the Research in Motion - the Canada-based service provider of BlackBerry Messenger. Ijaz and former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani had allegedly used the service to exchange messages. Appearing for Ijaz, senior advocate Akram...
11:30 PM, Jan 06, 2012
