Pak-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz records statement before Memo Gate panel

London, Feb.23 (ANI): Pakistan-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has recorded his testimony in connection with the 2011 Memo Gate scandal from the Pakistan High Commission in London through videoconferencing.

The Daily Times reports that Ijaz gave his statement to Memo Commission Secretary Raja Jawad Abbas and counsel for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Rashid A Rizvi.

Former Pakistan envoy to the U.S. Husain Haqqani's counsel, Zahid Bukhari, and Ijaz's lawyer, Akram Sheikh heard the testimony in Islamabad, the paper reports.alochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Sindh High Court Chief Justice Musheer Alam and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman are members of the commission.

Ijaz submitted a 29-page testimony to Abbas along with his BlackBerry PIN, phone numbers, emails, code words, documents and other key information regarding his conversation with Haqqani on writing of the memo and its delivery to Admiral Mike Mullen, the then chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pakistan's Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq submitted a reply on behalf of BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, maintaining that the company had refused to provide the record of communication between Haqqani and Ijaz, as it did not keep records of communication over three months old.

Ijaz told the commission that he met former ISI chief Ahsan-ul-Haq in 2003 in Brussels and former president Pervez Musharraf in 2005 and 2006 in London.

He also said that his last meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari was on May 5, 2009 at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington on the invitation of ex-Ambassador Haqqani, to brief the president shortly before he met with American officials at the White House.

He further revealed that he met with Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha on October 22, 2011, at the latter's request for around four hours in London to provide him with the same facts he provided to the commission.

Ijaz stated that over the past decade, he had maintained regular contact with Haqqani, adding that the former envoy sent him a BlackBerry message on May 9, 2011, asking him to return a call to London, where Haqqani was residing.

He said Haqqani told him the army wanted to topple the government, which wanted to send a message to Washington through Admiral Mike Mullen.The commission will continue with the hearing of Ijaz's testimony today. (ANI)