News
Friday, December 16, 2011
Memo cat comes out of bag: Conspiracy was hatched against Pakistan: army* Kayani calls for full review to evaluate facts
* Pasha says evidence provided by Mansoor Ijaz is satisfactory
ISLAMABAD: The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and DG ISI submitted their concise statements in the Supreme Court in the ‘memogate’ controversy, on Thursday, stating that the memo was a reality, and a conspiracy was being hatched against the army and national security.
In his reply, Kayani said the Financial Times published Mansoor Ijaz’s story about the memogate on October 10, and he was informed about DG ISI General Pasha’s meeting with Ijaz on October 24. He said Pasha was of the opinion that there was enough evidence to validate the authenticity of the memo, and was told by him that there was evidence which illustrated that Ijaz was in touch with Husain Haqqani between May 9 to 11, and they exchanged text messages and phone calls.
He said that on October 28, the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Presidency denied the memo in separate statements, while Admiral Mike Mullen through his spokesperson first denied receiving the memo on November 8 but changed this stance a few days later. Kayani states in his reply that on November 13, during a meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, “I advised that those points of the memo which were leaked were very sensitive and that a decision had to be made on it being real or not”.
The COAS insisted to the prime minister to summon Haqqani so he can brief the country’s leadership about this matter. “I told the prime minister that time was limited and the sooner we found out the facts the better it would be,” Kayani said in his reply. He said that on November 15, he (Kayani) was called by the president for a meeting. The prime minister had already informed the president about his (Kayani) recommendations over the memo issue, he said.
He said President Zardari informed him that the decision to summon Haqqani had already been made. On November 21, he added, US General James Jones confirmed that he had taken the memo to Mullen. He said he was part of a meeting which also included the prime minister, president and DG ISI on November 22. “It was during this meeting that Haqqani briefed all of them and Prime Minister Gilani asked for Haqqani’s resignation and ordered an investigation”. At the end of the reply, Kayani wrote that there was enough evidence validating the memo and there should be full review to evaluate the circumstance and facts behind it. He said the memo tried to decrease the morale of the Pakistan Army but was unsuccessful in doing so.
In his four-page reply over the memo controversy, ISI Director General Ahmad Shuja Pasha stated that he was satisfied with evidence provided by Mansoor Ijaz. He said Ijaz would not have been able to write the article in Financial Times without having evidence about the memo. He said the article was part of a never-ending propaganda against ISI.
He requested the court to summon Mansoor Ijaz and direct him to produce proofs of the matter. He said without proofs, no one could write such a big thing in his article. He requested the court to summon BlackBerry data and computer of Husain Haqqani and order its forensic examination. He said he would fully cooperate with the commission to be constituted by the court on memo issue. hasnaat malik
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk