The government and the army clearly faced off on Monday as the federation stated in its affidavit, submitted to the Supreme Court in response to the affidavit of Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, that if the army chief had come to know the details of the memo issue through Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha on October 24, 2011, why did he take so long to report the matter to the prime minister in a case where, according to him (Kayani), time was of the essence.
The army chief brought the memo issue to the notice of the prime minister on November 13. In an 18-page reply to the affidavits of the army chief, ISI DG, former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani and Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, a main character of the memo issue, the federation submitted its affidavit in the Supreme Court through the Interior Ministry on Monday, terming the alleged memo “a pack of lies” and declaring that Ijaz had tried to pitch the institutions of Pakistan against each other. The affidavit, submitted in response to the Supreme Court’s December 19 order by Interior Secretary Khawaja Muhammad Siddique Akbar on behalf of federation through Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, stated that the worthless piece of paper admittedly authored by an alien who had not made even a pretence about his allegiance and who admittedly had no credibility could not bring down the morale of the Pakistani people and the armed forces.
“This respondent (federation) has gone through the witness statement (testimony of Mansoor Ijaz) and finds no substance into it worth name because it is a pack of lies regarding the self styled ‘memo’ and the matters related thereto,” the interior secretary stated in the affidavit.
It said such efforts on Ijaz’s part were a non-issue from the point of view of the federation and the stance taken by the chief executive of the country. “As the federation has already denied categorically the baseless allegations of Mansoor Ijaz, therefore, his testimony is worth no credence and qua the issue in hand is totally denied,” the affidavit stated.
Responding to Para 4 of the army chief’s affidavit, the federation stated that according to him he came to know the details of memo issue through the ISI chief on October 24, 2011, however he did not mention anywhere in his affidavit why it took him so long to report to the prime minister in a case where he said time was of the essence.
Replying to Para 9 of Kayani’s affidavit stating that on November 22, a meeting was held at PM’s House that was attended by the president, prime minister, ISI chief and Kayani, in which Haqqani was called in to brief and thereafter the premier took the decision to ask for Haqqani’s resignation and also ordered an investigation, the federation submitted that on November 16, 2011, Haqqani had addressed a letter to the president proposing that pending ascertainment of facts, he would resign in the national interest. The reply submitted further that Haqqani resigned and his resignation was accepted by the competent authority and duly notified. “These documents have already been filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the federation and the prime minister has also directed a probe into the memo issue by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security,” the federation stated.
To Para 10 of the army chief’s affidavit stating that there was nothing denying the facts that the memo existed and it was also admitted to have been delivered and received by the US authorities, the federation’s affidavit submitted that Kayani’s opinion needed no comments.
The affidavit recalled that the federal government as well as the Presidency had already issued denial of the contents of the article published in the Financial Times on October 10, 2011 about the alleged memo. The affidavit said it was the stance of the federation that the federal government (including the constitutional head of state, the constitutional chief executive of the country, or any other component of the federal government) had neither conceptualised nor initiated or in any manner had anything to do with the alleged memo or the allegations or views expressed therein.
It said the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which had representation from all the political parties of the country as mandated by both Houses of parliament, was examining the facts and circumstances of the matter. It submitted that the sacrifices rendered by the Pakistan armed forces for the security, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan were unquestionable and unprecedented.
Similarly, it said the people of Pakistan and their democratically elected representatives took the brunt of every aggression equally on their chests and children, women, students and common citizens including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto laid down their lives to defend their homeland fearlessly.
It said Pakistan was a lucky country to have the 8th largest army in the world, which comprised of men and women. “Therefore, no one can weaken the morale of the Pakistani armed forces and certainly not the alleged memo, which is not worth even the paper on which it was printed,” the affidavit stated.
Meanwhile, contradicting his own as well as the federation’s stance that in the presence of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which was probing the memo issue, there was no need for any other enquiry commission, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said the memo controversy would be thoroughly probed at the “highest level” and an enquiry committee would be formed “very soon” to investigate the matter.
He, however, did not comment on the composition of the enquiry committee and also did not mention any specific timeframe in this regard. On Thursday, he had reportedly said that Haqqani was summoned back and asked to resign, which was mandatory to ensure justice. However on Monday he contradicted it by saying that Haqqani had tendered his resignation on his own.
Memo ‘a pack of lies’, government tells SC
