Haqqani, ISI DG fail to turn up before judicial commission

As the main character in the “memogate”, Husain Haqqani did not turn up before the commission on Monday, the body asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to contact Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry company in Canada, for authenticity of the communication between Haqqani and Mansoor Ijaz and directed the foreign secretary to obtain official record from Pakistan’s embassy in Washington regarding meetings between them in order to establish links, if any.
On the very first day of its meeting, the commission expressed annoyance over Haqqani’s absence. To a question by the commission chairman, the AG said Haqqani was in Islamabad and had not conveyed to him (AG) any concern regarding his security. “Has he chosen not to come or were the notices not served on him (Haqqani)? We want to ascertain it,” Commission Chairman Justice Qazi Faez Isa said. The AG said Haqqani had been served a notice. The ISI DG also did not appear before the commission; however, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Cabinet Division Secretary Nargis Sethi were present. To a question, Salman Bashir said “as of now, no departmental inquiry has been initiated on the memo issue”. He said there was a normal procedure to be adopted by the ambassador for his engagements. Justice Isa asked whether the entries in the register maintained by the Pakistan’s embassy in Washington pertaining to the meetings of the ambassador confirmed any meetings between Haqqani and Mansoor Ijaz. The foreign secretary said he would have to check the same and was duly directed to report to the commission if some record was available on the meetings between the two.
When further pressed, Bashir said Haqqani was the right man to answer such queries. The commission directed the attorney general to contact RIM for getting confirmation about the authenticity of the communications exchanged between Haqqani and Ijaz. The AG assured the commission that RIM would be contacted to get the confirmation. The commission also asked the AG to issue summons to Haqqani to appear at the next hearing. It directed the government to provide him requisite security and enable him an opportunity to arrange counsel. The AG suggested mobile phones of Haqqani and Ijaz be produced along with any other document and device they relied upon. The commission also decided to serve notices on General James Jones and others in the case.
The foreign secretary told the commission that Haqqani had submitted a note to the ministry on November 25 after he resigned as ambassador. Reading out the note, he quoted Haqqani as having submitted that he was ready to face an inquiry. He said according to the note, Haqqani had rejected Ijaz’s claims. At one point, the AG asked the commission to first summon Ijaz and start with him, upon which Justice Isa said, “In the meantime, we can cover some of the neutral ground as during cross examination, presence of both the sides is a must.” In its order, the commission said notices were issued to the AG, Cabinet Division secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary, Haqqani, Ijaz, James Jones and the ISI DG. Notices were also issued to PID for publication in newspapers, however, such publication was not made. The order said the AG expressed his regret over the non-publication of the advertisement and assumed that such a lapse would not take place in the future.
To a question, the AG said he had been informed that notices were dispatched to the Pakistani embassy in Washington for onward transmission to Ijaz and James Jones, however, he further informed that he had not received any confirmation whether the notices were served to them. The commission sought assistance of IT experts of FIA and the Ministry of Information Technology, to which the AG informed the commission that he would check with the organisations. The head of the commission said there was ISI’s role in the probe as well. The commission, while issuing notices to all parties, adjourned the hearing of the case until next Monday.