Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Taking part in the discussion in the Upper House of parliament on Husain Haqqani’s Washington Post article, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar on Tuesday said that there was no confession or new revelation in Haqqani’s article.

“However, a hype has deliberately been created to malign and tarnish the image of then president Asif Ali Zardari,” he said.

“I hold no brief for Haqqani. He is now an independent scholar and researcher. He is no longer in the PPP and the party has already distanced itself from him. I also do not agree with many of his views but I cannot allow this tirade against Asif Ali Zardari.”

However, he said that if anyone wanted to malign Zardari by using Haqqani’s or anyone else’s article then that person should also show courage to face facts.

Visas were issued after following a laid down procedure and not by Zardari or Yousaf Raza Gilani. “This question must have been addressed by the Abbottabad Commission, so why not make the commission’s report public to resolve once and for all how visas were issued and who issued them,” he said.

He said that the movers of the motion (in the Senate) dared not ask for making the report public because they feared that it might expose some who “they do not wish exposed”. “It is convenient [for them] to rely on mud-slinging.”

He said it was not uncommon for former ambassadors, presidents, prime ministers, spokespersons and public officials to write books and articles and not taking the official line in them. “But no fuss is made about them,” he said. He gave the example of Adviser Sartaj Aziz who was sitting in the House.

In his book Between Dreams and Realities, Sartaj Aziz said that the Pakistan Army crossed the Line of Control during the Kargil War and that he and the civil government were not taken into confidence at that time, he said.

Earlier, in a newspaper article, Sartaj Aziz wrote that critical areas of the foreign policy – including India, Kashmir, Afghanistan and nuclear power – the policy was framed somewhere else and not in the Foreign Office, he added.

Farhatullah Babar said that Sartaj Aziz was a patriot and deserved to be complimented for speaking the truth, but there should not be double standards in commenting on books and newspaper articles.

Later, in his winding up speech, Sartaj Aziz did not respond to the observations about his book and newspaper article. “Instead of focusing on Haqqani and Zardari, let us focus on the real tragedy of Pakistan: how it was possible for OBL to live in Abbottabad,” he said.