Supreme Court of Pakistan.—File Photo

ISLAMABAD: With just two days to go before the hearing of Nawaz Sharif’s petition over the memo scandal, a host of applications and affidavits kept on flooding the Supreme Court on Saturday. The matter will be taken up by a nine-member bench on Monday next.

The day broke with the issuance of notices on a letter written by a Canadian national of Pakistan origion, Shafqatullah Sohail, to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The affidavit of former US national security adviser James Jones and the reply of Tariq Asad, one of the petitioners, were also filed during the day.

Shafqatullah’s letter, which was received by the Supreme Court on Nov 19, requested the chief justice to take a serious note of the memo scandal since it was related to the country’s security and the armed forces.

The Supreme Court converted the letter into a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution stating that prima facie threat to the security of Pakistan had been alleged.

Notices went out to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani, advisers to the President and the prime minister as well as Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq.

With the conversion of the letter into the petition, the number of petitions rose to 11. Interestingly Shafqatullah had also sent a signed blank cheque to the Supreme Court as an application fee along with the letter.

“Our national security is at stake now and politicians are just making fun of each other by asking so called committee to form for inquiry,” Shafqatullah wrote in his letter, adding that committees will delay the outcomes rather than justice.

Keeping up his tirade against the politicians, he stated that they (politicians) were not going to take the memo case serious as they, especially the present government, were culprit because it was directly involved.

“If the contents of the letters are true then each and every Pakistani is at security threat due to present government and this government is not safeguarding the interest of its own people but it is securing the interest of other nations or enemies of Pakistan,” the letter alleged.

This is an anti state act and how comes a person involved in this matter is sitting on the key post of Pakistan and is a supreme commander of Pakistan forces, the letter alleged.

He stated that his family members were in the army living in Pakistan and he felt insecure due this government as they could invite our enemies to kill us.

Being a citizen of Pakistan I am requesting you to take a suo motu action on this matter to find the facts and make a clear judgment, the letter said.

Similarly Advocate on Record Akhtar Ali Chaudhry submitted a sworn affidavit of Gen (retd) James L Jones on behalf of firebrand lawyer and rights activist Asma Jehangir. Barbara Ann Murnane, a US notary public swore the oath of James Jones.

Asma Jehangir is representing former ambassador Husain Haqqani in the case.

James L Jones who delivered the controversial memorandum to US national security adviser Admiral Mike Mullen stated in his affidavit that at no time Pakistani- American businessman Mansoor Ijaz had mentioned the name of Haqqani when he called him. Ijaz also gave no reasons to believe that he was acting at the direction of former ambassador Haqqani, with his participation or that Haqqani had knowledge of the call or the contents of the message.

On May 9, I received an email from Ijaz attaching an unsigned memo, Jones stated adding the email was sent to him on his personal email address by Ijaz.

The memo was not marked classified or restricted, he said adding it was his understanding that this memo was related to the ongoing investigation.

It was his assumption, Jones said, that the memo was written by Ijaz since the memo essentially put into writing the language he had used in “our telephone conversation earlier.”

Upon his reading of the memo, Jones stated, it struck me as highly unusual that the “highest authority” (president zardari) in Pakistan government would use Ijaz, a private citizen and part-time journalist living in Europe, as a conduit for this. He stated that it was his understanding from Adm Mullen’s public statement on the matter that he reviewed the memo and did not find it credible and did not take any action.

Likewise Tariq Asad attacked the federal government’s reply filed through the AG stating that these should not be considered as a proper reply.

“It (reply) is much below the level expected of the office of the AG with almost eight team members to assist him,” he alleged.

Similarly the reply on behalf of the army chief also submitted by the AG should not be considered as reply. Whereas the reply of the DG-ISI was filed without seeing the petition, he stated.

About the reply of Haqqani, he stated that it was finalized by Asma Jehangir with an understanding as if it was an issue between the two political parties.