Haqqani boycotts memo probe: Commission summons foreign secretary

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Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani. — Photo by AP/File

ISLAMABAD, May 15: The memo investigation commission has summoned Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani along with the relevant record on Friday when it will examine forensic reports of BlackBerry Messages related to the memorandum allegedly sent to a former US military chief.

The commission also put on notice all the parties to the case, including Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt-Gen (retd) Ahmed Shuja Pasha, former ambassador Husain Haqqani, American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and other petitioners and respondents.

An official of the Islamabad High Court said on Tuesday that the commission would examine the forensic report of the BlackBerry sets of Mr Ijaz who claimed having drafted and delivered the memorandum to former US military chief Mike Mullen at the behest of Mr Haqqani.

The three-member commission headed by Balochistan High Court’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa sent its secretary to London on May 5 for the forensic test and asked him to send a request for another extension of the deadline for the work that lapsed on May 12.

The Supreme Court extended the time given to the commission in January, then in March and for the third time after May 12, by another four weeks.

Meanwhile, Mr Haqqani’s counsel Zahid Hussain Bokhari told Dawn that his client had withdrawn the attorney and decided to boycott proceedings of the commission.

He claimed that further proceedings after conclusion of arguments would be illegal because the commission had decided to draw inference on the basis of the available record.

On May 2, it gave three days to the parties to conclude their arguments that they were completed on May 5.

After the conclusion of the arguments, there was no need to convene a meeting of the commission, the lawyer said.

He alleged that the commission instead of the memorandum was now focussing on Mr Haqqani as it had sought details of his property and secret funds used while he was ambassador to the United States.

Denial to exhibit Mr Haqqani’s evidence which included his admissions and denials of the evidence presented by Mr Ijaz showed that now the focus of the commission was nothing other than the former ambassador, he said.

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