Mansoor Ijaz attaches strings to Pakistan visit

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the central character in the memogate controversy, said in a letter to the judicial commission investigating the scandal on Friday that he was ready to cooperate with the commission provided his conditions were met. Ijaz said even though he could travel to Pakistan in order to appear in front of the commission for testimony before January 15, since he was currently on vacation with his family until January 9, it would be better if the commission members travelled to Britain to conduct their investigation. Ijaz said he was willing to travel to Pakistan as long as he was provided state, not private, security during his stay in Islamabad and his safe return was guaranteed. He also demanded that his arrival and movement in Pakistan be kept tightly under wraps, and that he would not stay longer than a day or two. He said if he resolved to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which has been tasked with a parallel investigation of the controversy, that too would have to take place within the same amount of time. Ijaz also demanded that a written contract must be drawn up and signed by all parties involved in the investigation that no harm would befall the data he would present to the commission. He went on to state that in order to avoid the media, it would be better if he arrived in Pakistan in the morning and left the same evening after giving testimony. He also demanded that he be granted a visa without presenting his passport as he was reluctant to hand over his passport to officials who he felt were under Husain Haqqani’s influence. He said all important evidence that he possessed was in two BlackBerry smartphones, which he was ready to present to the commission. He said, however, that once he presented the data, Haqqani’s data would be rendered irrelevant. Ijaz said further that he and his family were receiving threats. However, in an application he had submitted to the commission earlier, Ijaz had waived privacy rights to facilitate full disclosure of the facts in the memogate controversy and demanded the judicial commission ask the same from Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani “in the interests of justice”. He also told the commission that he would be available for testimony from January 16 to January 20, 2012. Ijaz also requested the commission to direct the Counsel General of Pakistan at its High Commission in London to immediately issue him the necessary visa to visit Pakistan, and the relevant agencies of the federation to take all possible measures for his safety, security and similar concerns as he was coming to depose contrary to an apparently conflicting point of view with the federal government.
“My safe return may also be ensured by this commission after making this deposition,” he requested further. He also showed his willingness to submit his handsets to the commission for forensic investigation under an agreed-upon procedure with the commission’s forensic specialists. Through his counsel, Ijaz submitted an application to the commission on Friday to identify the forensic specialist and suggested that it would be much faster if the commission directed the specialist to visit the CEO of Research In Motion (RIM) at the site of its server for European communications at Berkshire, England and at Irving, Texas, US for collection of the requisite data. He requested the commission to issue process to the telephone service providers of Haqqani (presumably AT&T, Verizon or Sprint) in the US to obtain records of his telephone calls made during the periods in question (April 22, 2011 to November 30, 2011). He asked for these records to be requested for both his numbers, +1-202-270-2570 and +1-617-953-2835. Ijaz also told the commission that he would instruct his service provider in Britain to provide a copy of the relevant telephone records directly to the commission upon his presence in front of it. He voluntarily and willingly waived his privacy rights with regard to his two PIN numbers as they related to all communications that took place with the two PIN numbers allegedly belonging to Haqqani. His numbers included the PIN used between May 9 to 12 for BBM chat exchanges (2100A04F) and the PIN used from October 28 to November 4 for chat exchanges (21A5EC74). The application said the PIN numbers used by Haqqani were 2326A31D (used from May 9 to 12 for BBM chat exchanges) and 287EF1E9 (used from October 28 to November 4 for chat exchanges). Ijaz said it may be faster to issue processes to RIM Chief Legal Officer Karima Bawa, Head of European Operations Stephen Bates and to the head of US operations in Irving, Texas where the two data servers were located, which held the technical data and record of communications between Haqqani and him that the commission sought access to. He also expressed suspicions that communication records of all PIN numbers through which the communications took place had been deleted by Haqqani. However, he added, the data continued to be available on RIM’s servers even if the communicating parties deleted it from their own devices. He stated that the process of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)’s forensic examination might not be possible sooner than Monday, January 16, on which date – and up to January 20 – Ijaz undertook to remain available for his testimony before the commission. He said he was also willing to submit his handsets to the commission for forensic investigation under an agreed upon procedure with the commission’s forensic specialists.
US STATE DEPARTMENT: Meanwhile, the US State Department said in a late night statement that it was closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan and was also in contact with Haqqani’s wife.