Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Resigns Amid "Memogate" Scandal
"I have requested PM Gilani to accept my resignation as Pakistan Ambasssador to US," the former ambassador Husain Haqqani tweeted from Pakistan on Tuesday after being recalled to his home country from his posting in Washington, D.C.
Haqqani had been embroiled in scandal ever since Foreign Policy's The Cable confirmed allegations originally published in the Financial Times by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz that a senior Pakistani official requested assistance from then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to prevent the military and Pakistan's intelligence agenciy, the ISI, earlier in 2011.
The memo calls for direct political and or military intervention "to stand down the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment," and offers assistance to the Americans in echange.
That assistance would include an investigation into whether or not Pakistan provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden before his death, ejecting militant elements like al Qaeda from Pakistani soil, and making Pakistan's nuclear program more "verifiable" and "transparent," according to the memo.
“I have resigned to bring closure to this meaningless controversy threatening our fledgling democracy,” Haqqani said in a statement released after his resignation, according to Pakistan's Express Tribune. “I still maintain that I did not conceive, write or distribute the memo."
Haqqani said that, despite coming after days of controversy, his resignation was about "bigger things" than the memo.
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