Former Pak envoy to US booked over hate speeches

Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has been booked for  reportedly giving hate speeches and writing books and articles defaming the military and the government.

Haqqani was named in FIRs lodged by three people in two police stations in Kohat district of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, accusing Pakistan of "maligning" in his books, the 'DawnNews' reported.

The three FIRs were registered in Cantonment and Bilitang police stations by Momin, Muhammad Asghar and Shamsul Haq.

The complainants claimed that the former ambassador had caused irreparable loss to the country and defamed it.

Asghar  claimed in the FIR that Haqqani was a "mentor of the Memogate scandal" and had issued visas to "CIA and Indian agents" while serving as Pakistani ambassador to the US.

He served as ambassador from 2008 to 2011 in US and was removed for his  role in what is known as Memogate controversy.

The sections of the Pakistan Penal Code applied by police in the FIRs are 120B (hatching a criminal conspiracy) and 121A (waging a war against Pakistan).

A police officer said that under due procedure, Haqqani should surrender himself to them or he would be declared an absconder.

Haqqani was criticised by Parliament for his column in 'The Washington Post' in which he had written that he had helped the US forces in eliminating al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden when the government and the Inter-Services Intelligence had been kept in the dark about the secret operation.

It was about a memo sent to former Admiral Mike Mullen apparently seekingt he    help of the then Obama administration to avert a military takeover in the wake of raid at the hideout of Osama in May 2011.

Haqqani has also served as ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1993.