A memo from President Asif Ali Zardari to Admiral Mike Mullen against the army chief and ISI, which was allegedly sent through a Pakistani-American business tycoon, Mansoor Ijaz, echoed Thursday in the National Assembly, as the president was made target of severe criticism by opposition.
PML-N’s MNA Khurram Dastagir said on the point of order that “President Zardari wrote to Obama administration and we were told a lie about the issue”.
Another MNA of PML-N, Tasneem Siddiqui, said that last night Former Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Mike Mullen has acknowledged that he received the Ijaz memo but he never paid any attention to it.
“That was another insult of Pakistan as US officials said that he never considered a letter from Pakistan as attention-worthy,” she said.
PPP leader and MNA Fauzia Wahab said President Zardari wrote no secret letter and raising such an issue is to damage unity of the country.
She added that Mansoor Ijaz, who claimed to have handed over a letter to Mullen, is neither a diplomat nor part of Pakistani foreign ministry or the government.
“The issue of the letter is nothing but a plot aiming at destruction of the unity of Pakistan,” she said.
It is pertinent to mention that without naming anyone a high level government official was blamed for using him to convey a letter to Mullen by Mansoor Ijaz, a US national, in his article published in the Financial Times.
On Oct 10, Mr Ijaz claimed that President Zardari had sought Washington’s help for removing the army and ISI chiefs and had assured the Obama administration that he would cut all ties to militant groups if it assisted him do so.
According to media reports, the issue of the letter has not only turned into a hot topic in the parliament and political circle but has also created a rift between the government and army.
Moreover, President Zardari has summoned Pakistani Ambassador in Washington Hussain Haqqani, who was also blamed to have role in the letter’s issue, to Islamabad to solve the enigma and move towards some solution.
Mansoor Ijaz’s memo echoes in NA
