ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday termed the responses given by the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the Director General ISI, Lt General Shuja Pasha to the Supreme Court in the Memogate case as unconstitutional and illegal since it lacked the the approval of the competent authority.
Gilani, in an interview to a Chinese publication, the People’s Daily Online, said that any official action by a government functionary without the prior approval from relevant government authority is unconstitutional and illegal.
He referred to the observation of the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan that any act of a government functionary without the government’s nod was unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
The Prime Minister stated that in two simultaneous issues, one relating to the NATO attack on Pakistani check-post and the other relating to a letter written by one American national to another American, the civil and military leadership of Pakistan had held detailed meetings and took immediate decisions on the forum of DCC (Defence Committee of the Cabinet).In case of the attack by NATO, the Prime Minister said it was decided to refer the matter to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security.
In the second case it was also decided to refer the matter to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, besides accepting the resignation of Mr Hussain Haqqani, he added.
The Prime Minister further pointed out that responses filed by the Army Chief and the DG (ISI) to the Supreme Court in connection with the alleged Memo controversy did not have prior approval of the relevant competent authority.
