Govt is conspiring against the state: Akram Sheikh

By Our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Senior Advocate Supreme Court, Akram Sheikh Thursday opined that the contents if the memo were tantamount to an act of treason."Yes, it is a straight case of the government conspiring against the State itself," he said when asked about the legal aspects of the Mullen memo.

After an exhaustive reading of the entire document, the senior lawyer said that the memo aimed at violating the sovereignty of the State, the constitutional powers of the Parliament and was a clear violation of the oath of the offices of the purported author and his sanctioning authority.

He also opined that, "The memo not only intruded upon the sovereignty of the country but it also intruded upon the integrity of the Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal Commission investigating the OBL incident."

He said that it was indeed a "treasonous move" to invite a foreign country to run amuck in Pakistan in lieu of firming the ruling dispensation's hold on power. He said that prima facie he could see Article 5 and Article 6 of the Constitution coming into play once the authenticity of the memo was established along with the identity of the authors and their precise role in the sordid episode.

He said that it was indeed treasonous to trade for support for government for certain actions while there are also two assembly resolutions on ground precisely barring such very actions including military actions by foreign forces inside Pakistan, Drone attacks and killing of civilians etc. "This appears to be a case of high treason and invasion of the sovereignty of a nuclear state," he concluded.