Memogate matters

As the half-forgotten memogate case lingers on, the main player in the saga, Manoor Ijaz has begun giving his testimony — through a video link —before a judicial commission in London. This complexity in itself demonstrates the complications inherent in a case that, for now, seems to be heading nowhere at all.

The testimony was heard by the head of the commission, the Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and two other high court judges. Ijaz told them during the unusually long-distance proceedings that he had been asked by Husain Haqqani to convey to the then head of the US military that attacks would be launched on key al Qaeda targets in Pakistan if the COAS and DG-ISI were asked to step aside. Ijaz further claims that the US wished to have such an offer made from a source higher than Haqqani himself while the latter chose to use Ijaz because his role could easily be denied. Other claims of a willingness on the part of the Pakistan government to nail the culprits named by India in the 2008 Mumbai attacks also came up.

Essentially, the whole thing was at best chaotic. Ijaz proceeded to read out all kinds of messages from his BlackBerry phone which he said gave credence to his testimony. The judicial commission was also told that the BlackBerry company had refused to retrieve data from the sets which may further offer a more authentic version of any conversation that took place between Ijaz and Haqqani.

The whole thing seems to be turning into something of a farce. The case seems to be getting nowhere at all. As analysts have pointed out, the military establishment and civilian government have turned to the US for ‘help’ many times since the memogate issue. We really have no way of knowing what happened this time around, especially if Mr Ijaz, the whistle-blower in this bizarre case should be believed at all, given that his statement was strongly contradicted by the ex-Pakistan envoy to Washington.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2012.