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India-Pakistan
Zardari snubs Rabbani over Haqqani
2011-11-27
Reports say that a tense exchange of words took place between President Zardari and Senator Raza Rabbani over former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, in the hours-long meeting of the PPP core committee held late on Friday night.

The president spoke for almost 45 minutes with most of the meeting's time spent on the Husain Haqqani sacking saga. According to one of the participants, the president was "literally forcing" the agenda of the party, throwing his full weight behind the sacked ambassador while describing the entire scandal as "a conspiracy against the government, hatched outside Pakistan to create a rift between the civil and military leadership."

At this, the ever blunt veteran PPP stalwart, Raza Rabbani, refused to acquiesce and throw his unconditional support behind Mr. Haqqani.

A visibly irritated president is said to have chided the 'stubborn' Rabbani, also the Chairman Parliamentary Committee on National Security, for not lending the required support to Haqqani and for his independent ways. The president insisted that Rabbani follow the rest of the pack since Haqqani had always "stood by the party in difficult times."

Sources said that an unconvinced Rabbani responded that he always preferred making up his own mind over issues and that the Haqqani affair was no different. Upon hearing this, the president reportedly snapped, "I agree to disagree with you," and ended exchange.

Sources said President Zardari spent most of the meeting's time speaking about the Memogate scandal and thought that while Haqqani had been the focus, the real target was the government.

Sources said the president also spoke of time he spent in prison and one of the participants remarked that "it seemed that the days spent by the president in jail have forever stuck in his mind."

Reportedly, while praising Husain Haqqani, the president recalled that during her second term in office, he had advised Benazir Bhutto to allocate a party ticket to Husain Haqqani but she instead chose Shafqat Mehmood. However, when the government was overthrown, Shafqat Mehmood sided with Farooq Leghari while Husain Haqqani stood with the party.

Sources quoted the president as saying, "Husain Haqqani was earning more money giving lectures in an American university but when he was asked to become ambassador in the United States he left the lucrative job to serve the country." The president, according to these sources, told the committee that it was time to stand with Husain Haqqani rather than being taken in by the propaganda against him.
Posted by:ryuge

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