ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, will conduct the hearing of the Memogate case on February 8.

The Memogate scandal erupted in 2011 when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed to have received an 'anti-army' memo from Pakistan's ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani for the then-US joint chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.  

The bench, comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, will hear the case on February 8. 

The SC registrar's office also sent notices to the 24 petitioners of the case, which include Nawaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Ghaus Ali Shah, Husain Haqqani and others.

Earlier, the chief justice had summoned details of the Memogate case while hearing a case related to the right to vote for overseas Pakistanis.

The scandal, taken to the Supreme Court by then opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, led to Haqqani's resignation. 

Haqqani and the Memogate case

In September last year, Haqqani told Geo News "Memogate was just media noise, which is why the case has never been decided by the Supreme Court. That it disrupted lives without a conclusion is a sad reflection on how things work in Pakistan. I have moved on".

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, in March 2017, called for a parliamentary commission to investigate Haqqani's claims in a Washington Post op-ed that his 'close ties' with the US enabled the bin Laden raid.

Asif also stated that the former envoy had left Pakistan on the promise that he would return, but never did.

Following the article's publication and subsequent media uproar, the PPP also accused Haqqani of "treason and maligning the country?s armed forces at the behest of anti-Pakistan elements?.

Most recently, on January 21, media reports stated that three FIRs were registered against Haqqani in two police stations of Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for delivering hate speeches and writing against the armed forces and sovereignty of Pakistan.

The memo sent by Haqqani allegedly mentioned a possible army coup in Pakistan following the US raid in Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden.

It sought assistance from the US for the then-Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government for 'reigning in the military and intelligence agencies'.

A judicial commission tasked to probe the case had concluded that the memo was authentic and authored by the former envoy.

The commission said the purpose of the memo was to convince American officials that Pakistan's civilian government was 'pro-US'.