Now, Ijaz claims to be in touch with ISI chief Pasha for "security arrangements" over memo testimon

Islamabad, Feb 14 (ANI): Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the key man in the Memo Gate issue, has claimed that he has been in contact with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt General Ahmed Shuja Pasha in connection with "logistics and security arrangements" for his testimony before the inquiry commission created by the Supreme Court.

Ijaz said that he had been in touch with Pasha after his first meeting in London on October 22 last year.

If his claims prove to be true, it would create doubts about his being a disinterested party only seeking to reveal the truth, and lead to questions about why he maintains relations with the spy agency that he has described as "a cancer" in past writings, The Express Tribune reports.

Ijaz also quoted text messages and emails he exchanged with General Pasha in the letter he sent to Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on January 30, which was sealed by Chaudhry in the custody of the Supreme Court Registrar.

According to sources familiar with the contents of the letter, Ijaz claimed in it that he had been informed by Pashah that neither the Pakistani nor the US government wanted him to travel to Pakistan to testify about the memo. Ijaz also repeated his previous claims about feeling threatened by Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the civilian government.

He insisted in the letter that the Supreme Court should allow former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani to travel abroad so that a case could be made for Ijaz being allowed to testify overseas.

Although the chief justice sealed the letter that Ijaz had asked to be kept secret, its contents were revealed the same day to a private television channel along with comments that Ijaz professed that Haqqani was allowed to travel abroad at Ijaz's request. This effectively constituted an embarrassing suggestion that the Supreme Court was acting on Ijaz's request even though no such request was made in open court.

The Memo Commission has now accommodated Ijaz's request by making the unprecedented decision of allowing him to testify by VideoLink to assist in a fact-finding exercise that does not involve a criminal trial. (ANI)