Husain Haqqani leaves for US as travel restrictions ease

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani today left for the US after the Supreme Court eased travel restrictions that were imposed on him after he was implicated in the memo scandal.

Haqqani travelled from the Prime Minister's House, where he was living for the past few weeks, to the international airport in Rawalpindi along with a large security detail early this morning.

He did not talk to media waiting at the airport. The former envoy took a flight to the United Arab Emirates, from where he will fly to the US to meet his wife and children, media reports said.

Haqqani's wife, parliamentarian Farahnaz Ispahani, has been in the US for the past fortnight or so.

Haqqani's lawyer Asma Jahangir yesterday filed an application in the Supreme Court which asked that the bar on him leaving the country should be withdrawn as he had fully cooperated with the judicial commission investigating the alleged memo which had sought US help to stave off a possible military takeover in May last year.

In its order, the apex court said Haqqani would be allowed to travel out of Pakistan on the condition that he provides details of his visit to the registrar of the court and that he would be bound to return on four days' notice if his attendance is required by the judicial commission or the court.

After the apex court's decision, Haqqani held a meeting with the deputy chief of the US mission in Islamabad, Jonathan Pratt, at the Prime Minister's House.