The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the country’s former envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, Dawn reported.

The Federal Investigation Agency has reportedly asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Haqqani, who is accused of failing to comply with the court’s order and appear before it in the “Memogate” case.

The case is about a memorandum that Haqqani had allegedly written to former United States Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Haqqani had reportedly written it on the instructions of Asif Ali Zardari, who was then the president, seeking the support of the United States in averting a military takeover in Pakistan and assisting the government in bringing the military apparatus under stricter control.

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Haqqani had left Pakistan on January 3, 2013, after assuring the court that he would return on a four-day notice. He, however, did not return and on June 4, 2013, the court had directed the government to bring him back. “Haqqani left his case,” The Nation quoted Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar as saying. “Why should we not issue him a notice to appear before the court so that he could face allegations in the Memogate scandal?”

The court was hearing petitions that have urged it to grant Pakistani citizens living abroad the right to vote in the general elections this year. The court told the National Database Registration Authority to prepare within 10 weeks a software that would allow Pakistanis living overseas to cast their votes. However, why should people such as Haqqani, who have stakes elsewhere, be allowed to vote, Justice Nisar asked.

Haqqani responded, accusing the court of persisting with “such antics for local TV news coverage”. Such “political” warrants had not been honoured abroad in the past and it would not work now, he added.