Mansoor Ijaz, the central character behind the Memogate scandal, on Thursday submitted an 83-page statement to the judicial commission through his counsel in Pakistan Advocate Akram Sheikh revealing details from the saga.
In his statement, Ijaz not only confirmed his meeting with Pasha in London on October 22 but also gave details of the interaction he had with President Asif Ali Zardari on May 5, 2009 at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington DC at the invitation of former ambassador Hussain Haqqani.
About his relationship with Haqqani, he mentioned that they maintained regular contact over the past decade through e-mail, BlackBerry messenger exchanges, and meetings in person.
Apart from his witness statement, Ijaz requested the commission for in-camera briefing for certain comments that he noted saying “because the disclosures are not appropriate for this statement that can be viewed by others”.
Giving a rationale for disclosing the memo in the press, he said he was forced to write the Financial Times op-ed piece because of the confusion created by the media. “The impetus for the article, which I drafted the first thoughts for on 24 September 2011, arose from testimony offered by Admiral Mullen in his final appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee in which he called the Haqqani network of terrorists a “veritable arm” of the ISI, among other very strong comments”, Ijaz explained in the statement.
Apart from Ijaz’s statement secretary to the memo commission Raja Jawad Abbas is due in UK to receive evidence and gadgets used in drafting the memo. Although Ijaz has submitted his witness statement to the commission, the defendant and other petitioners will cross examine Ijaz along with commission’s members on February 22 via video link.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2012.
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@ARkhan: He is a Crook!
why he looks so crook???
The central character in the so-called Memogate affair, Mansoor Ijaz, has refused to come to Pakistan just one day before he was supposed to appear before the judicial commission investigating the matter. The reasons for his refusal, according to Mr Ijaz and his counsel Akram Sheikh, are that he fears for his safety and life, there is a security threat to both from the authorities in Pakistan, and apprehensions that the body of evidence he claims is in his possession to prove his allegations against ex-ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani and his ‘boss’ may be destroyed if it falls into the ‘wrong’ hands. Mr Sheikh has been at pains to assert that the assurance s extended by the Attorney General (AG) and the instructions of the commission in its hearing on January 9 that Ijaz’s security would be handled by the army have not been adhered to. At one point, in an apoplectic rage, Mr Sheikh went so far as to assert that both the COAS and the AG would be in contempt of court if they did not follow the orders of the commission. Now, however, that Mr Ijaz has decided not to show, it would not be out of place to remind Mr Sheikh that he is on record as having told the commission that if his client did not appear on the date agreed (which the commission was generous enough to extend at least three times), he would not trouble the commission any more. Now, instead, his client wants the commission to travel to London or Zurich and record his statement there. In the first place, the commission’s instructions notwithstanding, security under the law for any citizen or visitor is the responsibility of the interior ministry, which not only appointed a senior officer to take charge of Mr Ijaz’s security in Pakistan, the authorities went so far as to announce that an army officer had been attached to help with the security duties of Mr Ijaz. This too proved insufficient for ‘viceroy’ Ijaz. The authorities’ bending over backwards to accommodate Mansoor Ijaz’s concerns has only yielded the damp squib at the end of the day of a cop-out by monsieur.
@Kiran: You know why? It's exactly the goal of the opposition and anti-government forces_ to not let the current government succeed in public projects. You know you have a better chance of winning the race if you let the dogs out whenever your opponent comes out for practice. It's more important if you don't have a chance at all due to your incompetence or opponent's higher rating & skills. It happen in a match is fixed, audience are paid to come, stadium owner own the bus route and restaurants nearby, the athletes are relative of the stadium owner or it's security guards and employees who never were properly trained for racing.
I really do not care much about the Memogate scandal case and do not understand why it is grabbing the attention of the Pakistani authorities that now they do not seem to even listen to the real woes of the masses of this country where the electricity goes out for hours, gas is suspended and commuters have to wait in long queues outside the filling stations, mothers keep waiting for the gas restoration to cook food in time and the public takes to the streets to protest against rising inflation. This scandal has brought more misery to the lives of the masses of Pakistan. The Supreme Court, the military leadership and the democratically elected government all are requested to wrap this case up as soon as possible and find real solutions to our real problems.
For how long this farce will continue at tax payees expenses.
83 pages... I don't think I could pull that off even if I talked to and knew the person for a good part of my life. I bet it reads like a screen play. Really. Come on movie producers, he's probably looking at you. It probably starts off something like "I, Mansoor Ijaz, type this with my muscular pecks flexing with every letter and using all of my willpower to not be distracted by the charming and successful man reflected in the monitor..."
Lies and more lies and more lies.
Haqqani is out of establishment hands who wanted to torture him. That's all I care about.
For Pakistan everything American is bad except the dollar and their double agent. We love both of these in Pakistan. We would go to any extent to beg them for their attention. However, any good values and scientific education of the West is not needed in Pakistan. We are happy and in love with the banned militant organizations, Qadri and now Mansoor Ijaz.