Islamabad, Jan 16 (IANS) Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, one of the key figures in the memo scandal, Monday sought more time to appear before a three-member judicial commission probing the case. His lawyer has claimed that the government is preventing his return.

His counsel Akram Sheikh told the commission that his client has applied for a visa at the Swiss embassy and he might be able to appear before it Jan 24, Geo News reported.

After meeting the commission members Monday, Sheikh told reporters that his client will come to Pakistan when Interior Minister Rehman Malik will allow him to tell the truth.

He said the government is preventing Ijaz from coming to Pakistan by threatening him.

The commission headed by Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court Justice Qazi Faiz Isa resumed hearing in the case here Monday.

Besides Ijaz’s counsel, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Nawaz Sharif and former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani were also present.

In a related development, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has refused to release data regarding the memo that said President Asif Ali Zardari feared a military coup last year.

The scandal led to the country’s then US envoy Husain Haqqani stepping down.

The Canada-based phone manufacturer has said that their privacy laws prohibit disclosure of a customer’s data to any other party without the consent of the parties concerned.

RIM said that their response was to a sealed letter from the attorney general of Pakistan, according to Geo News.

Ijaz, who lives in the US, claims to have delivered a memo to the then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mike Mullen in May last year at the behest of Haqqani and the Pakistani government to avert a likely military coup. The claim kicked off a scandal that generated much heat in Pakistan.

The commission had met in the first week of January and issued notices to Haqqani, Ijaz, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, among others, to appear before it.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq said Monday that the Pakistan High Commission in Britain was instructed to issue Pakistani visa to Mansoor Ijaz as soon as his application is received.