Mansoor Ijaz’s testimony gets underway

The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s commission probing into the memo scandal is recording Mansoor Ijaz’s statement on Wednesday at Islamabad High Court through a video link.
Mansoor Ijaz, central character of the secret coup memo scam, reached Pakistani High Commission in London to get his statement recorded before the SC investigative body headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
During the course of hearing, Justice Esa asked Ijaz “can you speak Urdu?” Ijaz replied in negative.
Later head of the commission communicated with him in English and swore him in for speaking the truth.
Mansoor Ijaz gave documentary evidences to Judicial Commission Secretary Raja Jawaz Abbas, who is present at the London High Commission.
After taking oath Ijaz started giving reading his written statement. Zahid Bukhari, Hussain Haqqani’s lawyer, who is present in IHC building, told him that he could not read written statement.
Ijaz said a year had passed after the occurrence of important events and he could not verbally states such events.
Mansoor Ijaz told the commission, present in Islamabad, that he had met former president Pervez Musharraf and incumbent government Asif Ali Zardari on different occasions in the past.
Ijaz also showed his BlackBerry phone to commission secretary. Zahid Bukhari objected that he was neither in London nor Ijaz’s BlackBerry was Islamabad. He said that the commission secretary was not aware of technical issues of the BlackBerry phone.
On the occasion, Zahid Bukhari objected over the video link hearing, and called for cross-examination of Ijaz in London.
On which Justice Esa directed him not to intervene in the recording procedure, saying that the matter of cross-examination would be taken up after Ijaz’s video testimony.
Ijaz’s counsel Advocate Akram Sheikh and Advocate Zahid Bukhari were present at IHC, while Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer Mustafa Ramde is joining the hearing at London.
Sources said Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman, had already submitted his testimony to the apex court body probing into the memogate case.
The documents, submitted by his counsel, Akram Sheikh, include records of e-mails, first draft of the alleged memo written by Pakistan’s former Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani, personal notes of Ijaz and his meetings with the high officials of the government and the call records and messages exchanged between Haqqani and Ijaz in 2011.
The secret memorandum was allegedly sent by President Asif Ali Zardari to a US army general seeking Washington’s clout against any potential military coup in Pakistan. Ijaz had accused Haqqani of passing on the memo to Pentagon administration.
The court appointed Balochistan High Court (BHC) Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa as chairman of the commission and Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Mushir Alam as its members.