The Tale of an Opportunist and Lethal Duo – 1

By: Sohail Parwaz

Few months back I was reading an article somewhere, in which the writer paid a ‘rich tribute’ to Mr. Husain Haqqani by quoting George Orwell’s famous fable ‘Animal Farm’ about the animals rise-up against their human masters and subsequently taking over the farm while crying liberation. The writer beautifully penned down the tyranny that emerged under the pigs, hence, in Animal Farm Squealer the pig, became the mouthpiece for leader and fellow swine. All those who have the chance to read this famous tale should know that Squealer has “twinkling eyes” and “nimble movements”. He’s “a brilliant talker”, and while arguing some difficult point, he would skip side to side.  The others side of Squealer is that he could turn black into white since Squealer’s spin is vital. One can dare not compare the esteemed Mr. Husain Haqqani and his spouse Farahnaz Ispahani with Squealer because the latter remained loyal to the pigs throughout. But the former ambassador’s ‘ethics’ are his greatest potency: a selective memory loss that’s spun him 180 degrees; from a student at KU, to a wise man on world affairs at Boston University today.

Sixty years old Husain Haqqani worked as a journalist from 1980 to 1988 and then as political adviser for Nawaz Sharif and spokesperson for Benazir Bhutto. He frequently adjusted the sails of his vessel and enjoyed the ambassadorship for few years when he was sent to Sri Lanka in 1992. However, he failed to polish General Pervez Musharraf’s ‘apples’ hence soon went in exile. Till 2008 he taught international relations at Boston University and in 2008 he was appointed as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, nevertheless, his tenure ended after the Memogate incident, when the claim was made that he had been insufficiently protective of Pakistan’s interests. A judicial commission was set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to probe the allegations against him. According to commission’s report which was issued in June 2012, Haqqani was declared guilty of authoring a memo which called for direct US intervention into Pakistan.

Haqqani, who started his student political career from Islami Jameeat e Talba (IJT) couldn’t continue with them due to his Casanova Nature. He was known as a highest order flirt, whose first marriage story was very attention-grabbing. He was suggested a proposal in the family but when he went there, he lost his heart to a young schoolgirl while ignoring the actual proposal. He married to Ms. ‘H’ and has a boy and a girl from her. Later, he divorced her to marry to PPP’s Naheed Khan’s sister and soon divorced her too, only to marry the famous dancer Nighat Chaudhry. The third marriage of ‘Mr. Opportunist’ also remained unsuccessful and that’s how Mrs. Farahnaz Ispahani, ex Member of Parliament (PPP) and the granddaughter of Mirza Abul Hassan Ispahani, Pakistan’s first ambassador to Washington, became wife of Husain Haqqani.

Haqqani was in fact trapped by Farahnaz Ispahani to use his talent for her ancestral ‘hate role’ and keep up monopoly of their cronies appointed throughout world and locally, otherwise Haqqani is a middle class person well known for his fundamental beliefs, and change in his ideology was surprising for lot of persons who knows him since early education, however Haqqani himself is an opportunist who is also using Ispahani as stair to get benefits of established mafia. Both ruined the career of Naheed khan and Safdar Abbasi, who were named in murder of BB, and so much so that they were not even invited in oath taking ceremony of Zardari, major crime of Naheed Khan was that she is sister of one of the ex-wives of Haqqani (in fact that marriage was part of opportunism of Haqqani to take advantage of Naheed Khan’s relations with BB). The opportunist Farahnaz Ispahani was appointed as Zardari’s spokesperson at the President House where her activities became talk of the town. Both are opportunists and their goal is power and, ideology is faithfulness to their masters without any principal. Farahnaz who claimed to be champion of women rights, first steal rights of previous wife of Husain Haqqani, later replaced her nastily.

Pakistan’s former envoy to the United States and a wolf in sheep’s casing, Husain Haqqani, is no stranger to conspiracies. But even he did not anticipate finding himself effectively imprisoned amid a scandal involving a shady memo, a businessman with unclear motives and allegations of treason. He was caught up over a memo that accused the army of plotting a coup after the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden. Ever since then, fearing for his life, he took asylum in the luxurious hilltop Prime Minister House in Islamabad.

The scandal broke when a businessman Mansoor Ijaz, revealed in a column in the Financial Times that a senior Pakistani diplomat had asked for help in delivering a memo to the US Defence Department for help in reining in the military. The gentleman was known for switching affiliations and loyalties. During the later years of General Musharraf’s rule, when latter visited once America, same person tried to contact him and asked for one on one meeting which the smart general bluntly refused as he knew about the Johnny well and was updated about his selfish mentality as well. The guy felt humiliated and started a venomous propaganda campaign against the General in the US press. The out spoken president didn’t forget and forgive him and during one of his visits to the States, during a press conference, openly nitpicked the smart boy. The muck didn’t stop there and soon there was a gossip about his collaboration with a notorious anti Pakistan American think tank ‘Carnegie’s Endowment’. It was generally said that in the said paper’s script the most lethal parts related to Pakistan were scripted by our ex (intellectual) ambassador. Mansoor Ijaz later identified the diplomat as Husain Haqqani. Husain Haqqani was contended while thinking that the draft memo had no signatures, not realizing that the forensic science would dig out the relation between the BBM texts, call times and the memo. Room 430, Park Lane Intercontinental London, eventually turned out to be Waterloo for him. No evidence had emerged that the military was plotting a coup and the Pentagon at the time dismissed the memo as not credible, however, Husain Haqqani and his spouse Farahnaz Ispahani attained fame and became blue-eyed due to their hate for Pakistan and its esteemed institutions.

The turn in the story took place when both husband and wife recently toured India where they were accorded a very special treatment. What all they did there and the venom both of them uttered in India is to follow.

[Continuing]