Thaindian News

Islamabad, Jan 9 (IANS) Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz Monday agreed to appear Jan 16 before the memo commission which directed the country’s attorney general to issue him visa and ensure his security to enable him to arrive in the country.

The memo commission Monday held its proceedings in the Islamabad High Court premises with cameras and microphones recording the proceeding officially, the daily Dawn reported.

Ijaz claims to have handed over a memo to the then US military chief Gen. Mike Mullen at the behest of the then Pakistan ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, and the government to avert a likely military coup which President Asif Ali Zardari feared following Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s May 2 killing at Abbottabad near Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court set up a three-member commission headed by Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa to investigate the memo issue.

Akram Shaikh, Ijaz’s counsel, Monday confirmed his client would appear before the commission Jan 16. But, he said, that Ijaz’s arrival depended on the records of the BlackBerry conversation between Ijaz and Haqqani being made available to investigating authorities.

Shaikh also alleged that his client was not being issued the visa to Pakistan in Europe.

On this, the memo commission directed concerned authorities in England to issue Ijaz a visa without delay.

A foreign ministry official, however, told the commission that no application for the issuance of a visa had been filed by Ijaz.

Shaikh also submitted to the commission a petition filed in a sessions court for arresting Ijaz, and said that a false case was being registered against his client to intimidate him.

Ijaz in a letter to the memo commission earlier said that he was ready to visit Pakistan but requested security for himself and the evidence he would be in possession of.

His counsel Shaikh, however, told the commission his client was not given the visa to visit Pakistan, Geo News reported.

The commission Monday also instructed the attorney general to issue a visa to Ijaz on urgent basis and ensure his security. It also asked the law officer to provide additional security to Pakistan’ former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani.

A 17-member parliamentary panel — Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) — is separately investigating the memo case.