Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz Monday agreed to appear
before the Supreme Court-appointed memo commission after the attorney
general was directed to ensure that he gets a visa and is given security
on arrival in the country.
The commission, probing a memo
delivered by Ijaz to the then US army chief Gen. Mike Mullen to help
prevent a military coup which the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari
feared after killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osma bin Laden last May,
conducted its hearing Monday in the Islamabad High Court premises, the
daily Dawn reported.
Ijaz claims to have handed over the memo at
the behest of the then Pakistan ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani,
and the Pakistani government.
Pakistan's Supreme Court set up a
three-member commission headed by Balochistan High Court Chief Justice
Qazi Faiz Isa to investigate into the scandalous memo issue.
On Monday, Ijaz, appearing through his counsel, agreed to appear Jan 16 before the probe commission.
Akram
Shaikh, Ijaz's counsel, however, said that his client's arrival
depended on the condition that the records of his Blackberry
conversation between him and Haqqani were made available to the
investigating authorities.
Counsel also alleged that Ijaz was not
being issued the visa in Europe. On this, the commission directed
concerned authorities in Britain to issue Ijaz a visa without delay.
Shaikh
also said that a false case was being registered against Ijaz to
intimidate him, and he was being threatened with arrest on arrival.
Ijaz,
earlier in a letter to the commission, had expressed his readiness to
visit Pakistan but requested security for himself and the evidence he
would be in possession of.
On Shaikh's complaint that Ijaz was
not issued the visa, the commission directed the attorney general to
issue the visa on urgent basis, and also asked the law officer to
provide additional security to former Pakistani envoy Haqqani.
Appearing
before the commission Monday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)
chief Nawaz Sharif said, if required, he would present himself again
before the panel as his party respected the judiciary.
The memo
commission had summoned Zardari, Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq
Pervez Kayani, Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence Ahmed
Shuja Pasha, and Haqqani, among others, for Monday's hearing.
Haqqani denied to the commission he played any role in either the drafting or dispatching of the memo.
Kayani,
however, informed the commission in writing he would not be able to
appear before it as he was on an official visit to China.
A
17-member parliamentary panel -- Parliamentary Committee on National
Security (PCNS) -- is separately investigating the memo case. IANS
