Politics on memo issue

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There is more to it than meets the eye

Interesting developments that raise uneasy questions took place before the memo case was filed in the Supreme Court. DG ISI travelled to London to meet Mansoor Ijaz on 22 October. On 24 October he reported to the army chief that the sequence and contents of text messages and telephone calls exchanged between Ijaz and ambassador Haqqani created a reasonable doubt about the latter’s association with the memo. The ISI chief, however, did not take the prime minister into confidence. As Haqqani’s name had not appeared in the article written by Ijaz in the Financial Times, the media was totally ignorant about there being any possible connection between the memo and Haqqani. The opposition too had nothing to say about its alleged author. Interestingly, within a week of DG ISI’s return, Imran Khan knew about it. Imran made this an issue during his address at Minar-e-Pakistan on 30 October. Imran in fact went a step further by accusing President Zardari of being the author of the memo while he described Haqqani as being only a carrier. It is yet not known who passed on the name to the PTI chief and for what purpose.

It is remarkable the way the PML(N) shifted its position. The issue was taken up in the National Assembly by the hotheaded PML(N) MNA Khwaja Asif on 7 November. Asif claimed that the foot prints led to the Presidency and a sedition case had to be registered. Some of the Opposition leaders demanded a joint session of Parliament. Mian Nawaz Sharif, however, called for an investigation committee to probe the matter thoroughly. He wanted the committee to finish the job in 10-15 days. In case the government failed to do this the matter, he said, would have to be taken to the Supreme Court. Days before the cut off date the party mysteriously shifted its position. While Ishaq Dar had told the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, “I will push the committee members to take up the Memogate affair as well”, Mian Nawaz and Dar sent petitions to the SC to take up the case and Dar maintained that the parliamentary committee was void of any constitutional cover.

Whatever else there may be in the memo, the issue has been used by some of the players outside the SC to pursue their peculiar agendas.

4 COMMENTS

  1. for common man more important than memo gate are the problems of employment, health care , gas , water, food prices, crime rate, murders in the name of garat , etc, why not pay more attention to them, before memo gate we had fake degree cases, that led to nothing, nothing will come out of this too, its just a wast of time and m
    oney

  2. Someday, in the not too distant future someone will author a book and expose the truth behind this sad episode in our nation's troubled life. I'm betting that the story will reveal that the army/ISI nexus planned and executed the whole thing with the ambassador and the president as the initial fall guys but with democracy and civilian supremacy as the real targets. The judiciary of course, playing its traditional role of handmaiden to GHQ. Any takers?

  3. I agree with Javaid R. Shami, PPP has exposed the Judicio-military-mullah nexus behind the Memo case.

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