Zardari, Haqqani wanted to subjugate Army, ISI: Ijaz

Sticking to his previous statements and stance on the memo controversy, Mansoor Ijaz Saturday said that President Zardari and Husain Haqqani wanted to subjugate the Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence.
Though the statement from the star witness came in response to a question put by Haqqani’s counsel Zahid Bukhari during cross-examination but the latter could hardly digest it and insisted that the reply should not be made part of the record which led to a legal debate on the issue.
The question that Bukhari put was whether he (Ijaz) prepared the memo to create conflict between the civilian and military leadership of Pakistan. After hearing the reply from Ijaz, which directly hit his client, Husain Haqqani and President Zardari, Bukhari said that creation of conflict is not under question but the memo, adding the reply should not be recorded. However, chairman of the memo commission Justice Qazi Faez Isa said: “We are not asking you to ask such questions… we are repeatedly asking you not to ask such questions. If you ask, the reply will come in all its entirety”.
Addressing Bukhari, he further observed: You are doing so at your own risk”. As Bukhari insisted to withdraw the question, Justice Musheer Alam said: “Can a person ask for withdrawal (of question) after the answer has come”. Justice Isa said the counsel cannot say that he did not like the answer and don’t want to record it. “You cannot have it both the ways. You can ask the question but after hearing the reply, cannot say I don’t like the answer and don’t record it”.
Ijaz said both President Zardari and Husain Haqqani tried to subjugate army and ISI. “Haqqani has been working with intelligence agency of my country which orchestrates all movement of the senior US intelligence officials to be present in Pakistan to watch its interests. These actions led to conflict between ISI DG Lt. General Ahmad Shuja Pasha and the then CIA Director Leon Panetta over number of US officials on the ground in Pakistan,” he said. He further said as a result of US presence in Pakistan, the US government was able to secure information about location of Osama Bin Laden, the number one enemy in USA. “It is my assertion that therefore President Zardari and Husain Haqqani were working together and created environment of confrontation between the state institutions of Pakistan they are now blaming me for”, he said. He said when the May 2 incident took place, President Zardari gave permission to US President Barrack Obama without taking into confidence ISI and the Army. “When the operation took place, the (Pakistan) Army was embarrassed which made the ground for conflict”, he added. To a question put by Zahid Bukhari that why in his opinion Haqqani allegedly chose Ijaz to deliver the memorandum to the US authorities instead of himself doing so, Mansoor Ijaz replied: “On May 9, 2011, I asked Haqqani in point blank why don’t he himself deliver the memorandum to the US authorities and he made it clear to me that when he is in the USA, the eyes and ears of the ISI and the establishment including the military attaché were around him”. The wife of the Kashmiri leader Yaseen Malik, Mashaal Malik also appeared before the commission and stated that since the witness has “cleverly calculated mischief’ in his statement before the commission against her husband, her husband wants to voluntarily depose before the commission to reach truth in the matter.