Irked by the controversial claims by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the chairman JKLF, Muhammad Yasin Malik, has asked the chief justice of Pakistan for permission to depose before the commission probing the memogate scandal.
A letter was sent to the Chief Justice through Advocate Zafar Shah, and if approved Malik would be going to Pakistan to depose voluntarily before the commission.
“A request was filed that he (Malik) would also like to depose before the commission (looking into the memogate controversy),” Malik’s counsel, Advocate Zafar Shah, told Kashmir Times.
Mansoor Ijaz, the key figure in the memogate controversy, recently, claimed to have introduced Malik to the then deputy chief (later chief) of India’s intelligence agency, RAW. Malik has refuted the allegations. And in response to a story carried by Tehelka—a national magazine—he even offered to retire from public life if the allegations were proven.
“Therefore, I challenge, if anybody proves, I have ever met any RAW chief, I would retire from public life,” he had written to Tehelka. The response was published by the magazine.
The letter terms Ijaz’s accusation a “cleverly calculated mischief” attempted at showing Malik in “poor light.”
“…having come to know about the said statement, my client was pained. He feels cleverly calculated mischief in the statement of Mr Aijaz Mansoor,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with this newspaper.
“…I have been briefed to state,” the letter states further, “that my clients holds relevant information and wishes to depose before the commission in order to assist the commission in arriving at the truth. Apart from the facts, to be revealed during the course of deposition before the commission my client considers it appropriate to state that previously also an attempt was made by the said person to show my client in poor light.”
The counsel said the chief justice and the commission would look into the request.
“We will get to know about their response on Monday. If they approve the request Malik will have to go to Pakistan to depose before the commission,” he said.
