The lawyer of Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz on Saturday said that his client was willing to visit Pakistan and appear before the judicial commission probing the controversy.
Akram Sheikh also said that his client had not set any preconditions for his visit to Pakistan. He alleged that the Pakistani government had used the attorney general’s office to issue misleading reports about Ijaz’s visit to Pakistan.
He clarified that Ijaz was willing to come to Pakistan to testify before the judicial commission when required. He hoped that the memo commission would direct the government and its high ups to avoid “such tactics” in future.
Meanwhile, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) moved a lower court to register a first information report (FIR) against Ijaz for his anti-Pakistan lobbying.
The move appears to be an attempt to create hurdles in Ijaz’s visit to Pakistan. Khalid Javed, the PPP activist, considered it the best time to register a case against Ijaz, who has shown willingness to appear before the commission.
Additional Sessions Judge Syed Wajahat Hassan sought a report from the station house officer (SHO) of the Police Station Secretariat within three days after the preliminary hearing of the petition.
The petitioner’s counsel, Raja Israr Ahmad Abbasi, submitted before the court that Ijaz was trying to destabilise the democratic government and defame the “patriotic forces” by his “anti-Pakistan lobbying”. He stated that Ijaz should be charged under sections 153-A, 177, 197, 199, 200, 468, 471 and 505 of the Pakistani Penal Code (PPC) for publishing memo-related documents containing statements, articles and analyses in the international media.
He told the court that his client had approached the police station concerned to register an FIR against Ijaz, but the police refused and told him to request the court to direct the Secretariat SHO to register a criminal case against Ijaz.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Secretariat Police Station SHO Hakim Khan said that Khalid Javed had sent him a courier the other day to register FIR against Ijaz, which, according to him, does not fall under his jurisdiction.
