Two identical applications filed in Supreme Court (SC) on Friday sought to make Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom (UK) Wajid Shamsul Hassan a party in the Memogate case on the basis of his statement that Pakistani leadership might have been aware about the May 2 Abbottabad operation.
The petitions also prayed the court to summon two journalists to assist it in the 'Memogate' scam hearing. In his interaction with foreign media, Wajid Shamsul Hassan had not ruled out the possibility that Pakistani leadership, both civilian and military, might have been "aware beforehand" about the midnight operation in the garrison city of Abbottabad.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz legislators Ishaq Dar and Khwaja Asif filed the civil miscellaneous applications, making the Federation of Pakistan and others respondents. The petitioners also contended that Wajid Shamsul Hassan should be summoned in the Memogate scandal because he had also said that Pakistan assisted in terms of authorisation of the helicopter flights for the May 2 operation.
Both the petitioners prayed the SC to direct Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure the presence of Wajid Shamsul Hassan in Pakistan as well as not to allow him leave the country unless cleared by the SC or any other commission of the apex court in the case.
The petitioners said that Pakistan's High Commissioner in UK had reportedly said that Pakistan had at least 8 to 10 days advance knowledge of the May 2 incident. Khwaja and Dar prayed the SC to summon Muhammad Malik and Shaheen Sehbai to assist the court for reaching a logical conclusion in the matter. It is worth mentioning that the SC is scheduled to resume the hearing of Memogate scandal on December 19 in response to identical constitutional petitions, filed by PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and others, making President Asif Ali Zardari, CoAS General Kayani, ISI DG Pasha, former Pakistani ambassador to USA Husain Haqqani, Mansoor Ijaz and Federation respondents with a plea to probe into the scandal.