Pakistan’s former top diplomat in the United States has admitted that he made telephone calls to Memogate whistleblower Mansoor Ijaz from May 9 to May 12, 2011.
In his written reply to a commission investigating the matter, Husain Haqqani on Wednesday, however, denied having any conversation about the controversial memo which Ijaz had implicated him in.
The reply was submitted by Haqqani’s counsel after the commission asked for his stance on the documents Ijaz had submitted earlier.
Haqqani also rejected Ijaz’s handwritten notes and email exchanges between the two regarding the preparation of the memo. He admitted, however, the exchange of 83 mails consisting of 92 pages in the last 10 years, but claimed they were unrelated to the memo.
Haqqani described the purpose of the emails between him and Ijaz as a fundraising campaign for his NGO Rebuilding Afghanistan.
Haqqani admitted telephone conversations with Ijaz – but he denied that the delivery of the memo to former US chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen was discussed in any of their calls.
He also denied knowledge of Ijaz’s contacts with former US security adviser Gen James Jones to finalise the memo from the Pakistan government to Mike Mullen.
Haqqani expressed his ignorance regarding a reported meeting between Ijaz and then Inter Services Intelligence chief Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and rejected Ijaz’s claim that he had arranged a meeting between Ijaz and President Asif Ali Zardari on May 5, 2009.
The commission summoned Haqqani to record his statements on March 26.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2012.
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The proceedings in the memo case are one after another peeling the layers of drama off Mansoor Ijaz’s skin. Since the scandal broke out, it created immense misunderstandings among different institutions of Pakistan’s state and Mansoor Ijaz kept fanning the fire by his statements, which he has failed to support in his testimony. He testified to the commission: “It was my understanding that Haqqani had directives from the Pakistani President.” Mansoor Ijaz should know that Pakistan’s affairs are not run according to his understanding. He is not a Pakistani and has little idea of this country’s history and politics as he himself has admitted his inability to understand the 1971 analogy allegedly drawn by Husain Haqqani when he asked Mansoor Ijaz to deliver the memo to Admiral Mike Mullen. BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) has refused to provide BlackBerry data exchanged between Mansoor Ijaz and Husain Haqqani because of confidentiality restrictions and because data is not stored for more than three months.
liar and traitor.