ISLAMABAD: Media Adviser to the President Farahnaz Ispahani, who is also the wife of Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, allegedly involved in a controversy over a secret memo sent to the Obama administration, on Monday defended her husband and said the pair is ready to face legal action pertaining to the memo controversy.
Ispahani said she and her husband want "an investigation" into the matter and were ready to cooperate in the forensic investigation of Husain Haqqani’s blackberry phone and computer.
"Whatever guidance is given to us by our senior leadership, we will take it, but personally if the senior leadership allows us, we will go in for libel," she added.
It is pertinent to mention here that having purportedly ‘convinced’ the president of his alibi on the memo controversy, Hussain Haqqani is likely to face the troika – the president, the prime minister, and the army chief.
She expressed these views while talking to the media outside the Supreme Court here on Monday.
Agencies should investigate the memo game: Haqqani
KARACHI: Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani said on Monday that he was unable to understand the claims made by American businessman Mansoor Ijaz. He was speaking to Geo News and said that Ijaz calls him a patriot and a liar at the same time.
The ambassador raised many questions and asked that why Mansoor Ijaz sent the memo and who delivered that to Admiral Mike Mullen. And how it was proved that he was the author of that document.
Ambassador Haqqani also said that Mansoor Ijaz has now accepted that President Zardari was unaware of the memo but he had said otherwise when he initiated the entire fiasco.
The ambassador predicted that Ijaz will step back from other claims as well and suggested that agencies should investigate that who is behind the memogate scandal and who can take advantage of the army-establishment clashes.
President Zardari was unaware of the memo: Ijaz
KARACHI: Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has stepped back from one of his claims and said that President Asif Ali Zardari was not aware of the controversial memo sent to US military chief Mike Mullen, Geo News reported Monday.
Mansoor Ijaz has rejected any such reports claiming that there was some understanding between President Zardari and Ambassador Husain Haqqani regarding the document sent to Mike Mullen.
Ijaz claimed that the President might have spoken to Husain Haqqani about the pressure on him after the May raid, hence asking the latter to help him out in this regard.
The businessman rejected the idea of any missing links in the memo chain.
Earlier in his article published in the Financial Times, Ijaz had claimed that he had drafted and delivered a memo to Admiral Mullen with the help of a top diplomat on President Zardari’s instructions.
Missing US link in memo mystery confirmed
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
ISLAMABAD: The identity of the intermediary between Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz and Admiral Mike Mullen is no longer a mystery. James Logan Jones, former United States National Security Advisor and a retired US Marine Corps General, confirmed to The News Sunday night that he had received the memo from Mansoor Ijaz and delivered it to Mullen.
General Jones confirmed his role as conduit to this correspondent via email but wanted to make it clear he was not a serving government official or associated with the United States administration in any way when he passed on the memo from Ijaz to Mullen. "I was not in government on May 10 when I forwarded the message to Admiral Mullen on 10 May," General Jones said.
After this correspondent received information from trusted sources that General Jones was the intermediary between Ijaz and Mullen, he was approached, via email, and asked to confirm or deny. General Jones' reply said: "Dear Ms Zahra-Malik, No secret here. Have confirmed my role as conduit with FT (The Financial Times) four days ago. I was not in government on May 10 when I forwarded the message to Admiral Mullen on 10 May. Cheers, Jim Jones."
General Jones has served as Commander, United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 2003 to 2006 and as the 32nd Commandant of the Marine Corps from July 1999 to January 2003. Jones retired from the Marine Corps on February 1, 2007, after 40 years of service. He later served as the US National Security Advisor from January 2009 till November 2010.
With the confirmation from General Jones, one of the last links in the memo authenticity-chain now stands confirmed. Now the only remaining missing link in the puzzle relates to the principal agent: did Ambassador Haqqani draft the memo with the authorisation of President Asif Ali Zardari, as alleged by Mansoor Ijaz and is being used by the president as a scapegoat now that the plot has been revealed, or was the ambassador, as is being suggested, the mastermind behind the plot to rein in the Pakistani security establishment?
has arrived in Islamabad to explain his role, if any, in conceptualising, writing and passing on the memo to the US administration. The envoy has reportedly already held two informal meetings with the president and is now expected to 'explain' his alleged role in the memo case in a closed door meeting with the president, prime minister, army chief and DG ISI.
In the days ahead, it is expected that the last link in the chain will be revealed: did the President of Pakistan, the supreme commander of Pakistan's armed forces and the symbol of the federation, authorise the writing of the memo? If the treasonous memo is traced back to President Zardari, it will raise serious constitutional questions about his competence to remain president and further exacerbate the country's menacing civil-military imbalance.
The News has already published the document at the heart of the memo controversy: a six-point plan offering to reshape Pakistan's national security leadership in return for US help in avoiding a military coup. The memo was delivered to Admiral Mullen by, as confirmed by The News, General Jim Jones just nine days after the killing of Osama bin Laden and requests Mullen's help in ending Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani's and Director General ISI, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha's "brinkmanship aimed at bringing down the civilian apparatus."
The News has confirmed that after news of the memo first surfaced in an op-ed written by Ijaz in London's Financial Times on October 10, it was decided at the highest level of the military leadership that the initial investigation would be carried out by spy chief General Pasha himself. Mansoor Ijaz subsequently met General Pasha in London on October 22 and shared with him a cache of evidence, including full records of phone calls, SMS messages, BBM chat exchanges, emails and other data.
General Pasha briefed General Kayani about the matter only after the authenticity of Ijaz's evidence was verified. The army chief subsequently met with President Zardari twice and asked him to act against Haqqani and at least two other federal ministers, both close aides to the president, who allegedly assisted Haqqani in his efforts to slander their institution. The army chief's meetings with President Zardari followed led to the summoning of Ambassador Haqqani to Islamabad.
As things stand now, the ambassador's job and the president's government hang in the balance. Both have much to account for: a memo that includes not just a direct acknowledgment that the current security establishment is in cahoots with terrorist outfits but also asks for direct intervention from the US to set things 'right.' There are questions to answer and answer the government must.
‘PM to take action if Haqqani found involved’
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Ruling out the possibility of martial law in the country, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar on Sunday said Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani would take action if Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani was found involved in the memo controversy.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said Mansoor Ijaz was a known intriguer and had been involved in similar acts in the past as well. “Husain Haqqani is part of the prime minister’s team and if he is found involved in the memo issue, he will not be spared,” Mukhtar added.
He dismissed rumours about the prevailing unease among the security forces following the memo scandal but said the coming days would be crucial for the political situation in the country. He said Pakistan was passing through a critical phase and it would not be easy to say who was actually behind the memo controversy. He said he hoped the facts would come to the surface soon.
About PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his plan to move the court if the memo was hushed up, Mukhtar said: “The PML-N leader can go for anything he wants. If his target is to remove the government, ours is to save it”.
Online adds: About Nawaz Sharif’s allegations that secret agencies were backing a particular political party, Mukhtar said the ISI and other agencies had nothing to do with political activities. “Blaming the agencies for political meddling is not correct,” he said.
INP adds: Mukhtar said there was no tussle between the civilian and military establishments. “Whenever new issues surface in the country, there are rumours that the government will not be able to complete its term,” he said. “The government will continue to work till the completion of its tenure.”
Govt reluctant to summon Senate session on memo issue
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: The government is reluctant to summon the session of the Upper House of parliament that has been requisitioned by 29 members of the opposition last week to discuss the memo issue.It was submitted by the members on Friday and the Senate chairman is bound to convene the sitting within 14 days of filing of the requisition.
The government earlier indicated that it was prepared to summon the sitting within a week but now Chairman Senate Farooq H Naek has been asked not to show ‘undue’ haste in the matter. In the meantime, the opposition has planned to again raise the memo issue in the National Assembly today (Monday) when the Lower House will start proceedings in the afternoon. Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has asked his members to turn up in the house in maximum numbers as he has sought advice from his leader Nawaz Sharif on the subject and it is expected that the opposition would raise the matter in an adjournment motion. The session is likely to be stormy as the opposition has decided to block the proceedings if the adjournment motion in question is not entertained by the chair.
Well placed parliamentary sources told The News here on Sunday that the opposition will come out with the demand for the registration of a treason case for alleged dispatching of the memo and initiation of a probe in the matter by a credible commission. The opposition has rejected the findings of the government and Pakistan’s Ambassador in the United States Husain Haqqani’s explanations given to the president. The opposition is of the view that the Presidency is an equal partner in the heinous offence; their colluded finding would be of no consequence. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani will also appear in the House but he will have to control the situation with a fair amount of difficulty since the matter has become too serious. He has been pleading to wait for the findings of the inquiry but the opposition is not willing to accept any such inquiry. Prime Minister Gilani will have an important meeting with the president before the commencement of the National Assembly. Sources in the Presidency have maintained that no meeting between Husain Haqqani and the president had taken place till late evening on Sunday despite the fact that both are staying in the Presidency.
A rumpus cannot be ruled out in the National Assembly on the memo scandal as the ruling alliance has also asked its members to be present in the House. The agencies concerned have worked out a detailed questionnaire for Husain Haqqani on the basis of evidence that is already with them. Haqqani will have to answer each and every question and then supplementary questioning will take place, the sources said.
