News
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Mansoor tells SC he won’t turn up
* Pakistani-American businessman files application in court saying he can’t come to Pakistan over risk to life
* Wants his statement recorded abroad
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: Mansoor Ijaz on Saturday moved an application in the Supreme Court, saying he could not come to Pakistan over security concerns and that the court direct the judicial commission probing the memo scandal to record his statement outside Pakistan.
Ijaz’s lawyer Akram Sheikh filed the application under Order XXXIII Rule 6 of the Supreme Court rules 1980, and Article 187 of the constitution for recording the applicant’s testimony outside Pakistan.
The applicant contended that according to the Supreme Court order, the commission was also mandated to collect evidence within and outside Pakistan “according to prevailing laws on the subject”.
The applicant also reiterated that he did not want that his name be put on Exit Control List (ECL) if he enters Pakistan.
“The applicant does not want to be the suspected root cause of any institutional conflict between the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), the commission, the judiciary, the government and the armed forces on the issue of his security or otherwise,” Mansoor Ijaz’s application read.
The applicant said that Research In Motion had shown reluctance in providing data to the commission about conversations between him and former ambassador Husain Haqqani. The applicant said he had executed a waiver to the company, enabling it to release his records “but Husain Haqqani has categorically refused to execute any waiver/consent”.
Mansoor Ijaz also said that he was unwilling to violate the chain of custody that requires him to deliver and explain in person the content of all the evidence available directly to the chief justice.
“On January 16, the AG [attorney general] reiterated the undertaking on January 9 regarding the security arrangements agreed to the same day. Consequently, the applicant started making preparation to visit Pakistan. The applicant had taken all material steps and was all set to leave for Pakistan to appear before the commission on January 24. However, Interior Minister Rehman Malik made public statements that the applicant could be involved in other cases and stopped from leaving the country. He also made a statement if the Parliamentary Committee on National Security so desires, the name of Mansoor Ijaz could be put on the Exit Control List for crimes against the state,” the petition said.
Mansoor Ijaz said that contrary to the undertaking of the attorney general, the Ministry of Interior was the overall arching body to provide security to him [Ijaz] instead of the army, which was ordered by the commission.
The Pakistani-American businessman said that he had brought a prime minister’s statement to the notice of the commission that “the state would not spend billions of rupees on the security of one individual”.
“The applicant has openly expressed his dissatisfaction over the undertakings given to the commission and most respectfully prays that this court may graciously direct the commission that applicant as well as whole evidence may graciously be recorded outside Pakistan to ensure that the commission’s mandate comes to a logical conclusion in the most expedited time as possible. That either the full bench of the commission or any one of its learned members may visit an appointed place outside Pakistan for taking into possession the original, un-tampered BlackBerry handsets, text messages, emails, call logs and handwritten notes of the calls as well as recording of the applicant’s verbal testimony.”
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk