Haqqani questions Interior Ministry's steps for his security
12 February, 2013
LAHORE: Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, has in a letter to the Interior Ministry secretary expressed his dissatisfaction with the ministry's letter to the Supreme Court about necessary security arrangements for his return to Pakistan. The former envoy, in the letter, states that he received copies of two letters, dated January 18, 2013, and January 28, 2013, respectively, addressed to the Supreme Court registrar by the Interior Ministry about security arrangements for his return to Pakistan, as desired by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The letters, he notes, were forwarded to him by his counsel, Asma Jahangir. "Unfortunately, neither of the letters addresses any of the concerns listed in my letter dated December 27, 2012 addressed to you," Haqqani writes in his letter to the interior secretary. He has mentioned his major concerns in the letter and sought specific assurances in relation to them. "A number of self-appointed guardians of Pakistan's integrity and ideology have targeted me and routinely send me threatening messages by email, Twitter and on phone. Even in the United States, where I currently live, authorities have had to repeatedly investigate threats to my person," the former envoy writes. He notes that "the recent assassination of ANP leader and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Bilour has exposed the hollowness of state-organised security arrangements, especially for those who do not conform to the narrowly construed ideology of extremists and their mentors within the country's establishment." Haqqani has asked how would arrangements currently being considered by the Interior Ministry for his security be different and more protective than the arrangements made for the security of Bilour, former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer or federal minister Shahbaz Bhatti. "What specific assurances is your ministry able to offer me that, given my media trial and widely created false perception aided and abetted by the intemperate language used by the commission about my loyalty to Pakistan, I will not be targeted by a fanatic or hyper-patriot, including someone serving in the services charged with my protection?" he inquires. End.
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