Pakistan military generals who were hiding the world's most dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden next to their country's West Point have forced the resignation of their country's ambassador to the United States.
Husain Haqqani, 58, resignation was accepted by the country's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
"I have much to contribute to building a new Pakistan free of bigotry & intolerance. Will focus energies on that," Haqqani tweeted around 10 a.m. Washington DC time.
The resignation came in the wake of a memo that was allegedly crafted by Haqqani and handed to former chief of Joint Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, that would have helped curtail Pakistan army's support to the Taliban and Al Qaeda with U.S. support.
Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani businessmen from the minority Ahmadi community, had exposed Haqqani in a write up in the Financial Times allegedly after he managed to get only 25 percent of his lobbying job, according to one Pakistan journalist on twitter.
Former National Security Adviser General (R) Jim Jones confirmed he had had given the memo to Mullen.
Haqqani, in spite of his start in student politics as leader of the student wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and his shifting of political loyalty in the early 1990s became a voice for liberalism in Pakistan when he penned the now famous book Pakistan: Between Mosque & Military.
"I am very sad to hear that," said D.C. resident Kimberly Crichton, who had met Haqqani and seemed to have liked his intellect.
Haqqani further annoyed the Pakistan military generals when he is said to have drafted an executive order in summer 2008 on the eve of Premier Gilani's first visit to the U.S. that sought to put the control of the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence in civlian hands.
He was also credited with playing a role in crafting of the Kerry-Lugar Bill that shifted the focus of aid from the military to the civilian sector.
In spite of the international shame that bin Laden's killing brought to Pakistan, not a single general lost hisjob and two of the most powerful generals, army chief Gen. Pervez Ashfaq Kayani and I.S.I. chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha are still glued to their seats.
Haqqani resignation proves a popular joke about Pakistan has a ring of truth about it: all countries have armies but one army, Pakistan army, has a country.
Najam Sethi, liberal but very careful writer and publisher from Punjab, tweeted, "Haqqani has resigned and done the right thing!"
In the eyes of many, Haqqani became the sacrifical lamb to save the job of his boss -- President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistani army and I.S.I. chiefs are known to be ruthless with those who try to undermine their powers.
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