A spokesman for the legal team of Husain Haqqani has said “the star of Stupidisco video and memogate, Mansoor Ijaz, should stop assuming that Pakistanis are fools” and should refrain from issuing long statements that try to confuse people with technical jargon about Blackberry handsets.
He said Ijaz set out to topple the democratic government with his so-called revelations and failed in his scheme and “should now try and protect whatever is left of his dignity.”
The spokesman said RIM’s reply to the waiver consent will be “far more shocking for Ijaz and those who joined his scheme of destabilising democracy than they realise… so instead of speculating on the subject, Ijaz and his backers should simply wait for that reply”.
In a rejoinder to Ijaz’s statement, the spokesman said for months Ijaz based his false claims about memogate on alleged BBM messages which his anti-PPP friends in the Pakistani media cited repeatedly.
“Husain Haqqani waited for Mansoor Ijaz’s testimony and any other record comprising allegations against him to be produced before the Memo Commission before authorizing the Blackberry manufacturers Research in Motion (RIM) to release any data they have of exchanges between him and Ijaz. Most legal experts agree that this was the legally smart strategy.”
“As a sign of his conviction that he has nothing to hide, Haqqani authorised RIM to accept the PIN numbers provided by Ijaz for identifying any BBM message exchange between the two persons,” the spokesman said.
He said by linking his waiver consent to that of Mansoor Ijaz, Haqqani had dispensed with the need for providing other technical information about his misplaced Blackberry handsets, contrary to the disinformation put out by Ijaz.
According to the spokesman, Ijaz’s lawyers probably forgot to tell him that the memo commission had provided the template to Haqqani’s lawyer for writing the letter to RIM and the letter was written as directed along with a copy to the commission.
The spokesman said Ijaz had acknowledged during his cross-questioning before the Memo Commission that he did not have any email, SMS or BBM message in which Haqqani had asked him to write the disputed memo. The then ISI chief also admitted that he had conducted no forensic examination of Ijaz’s handset and that Ijaz had refused to hand over his handset to General Shuja Pasha.
“Mansoor Ijaz should know that his lies and exaggerations cannot go on forever. He has become an international joke and the only reason he still manages to get some attention in Pakistan is because of his alignment with forces in Pakistani politics and media who want to grasp at every excuse that would enable them to attack the fledgling democratic government in the country,” the spokesman said.