Pakistan 'memogate' witness refuses to testify

[fd24]

The US businessman at the heart of Pakistan's "memogate" political scandal will not come to the country to testify, blaming concerns for his own safety, according to his lawyer.

After proclaiming he was prepared to give evidence even at the risk of his own life, Mansoor Ijaz will not turn up for the court appearance on Tuesday.

Ijaz claims the then Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, dictated and asked him to deliver an anonymous "memo" to the American military leadership in May last year, offering to rein in the Pakistani armed forces in return for US support for the civilian government.

Without the evidence of Ijaz, the case against Haqqani looks likely to collapse. His lawyer, Akram Sheikh, said Ijaz was willing to give his evidence in London or Zurich, where he spends much of his time.

Ijaz claimed he had been receiving threats and had demanded security from the Pakistani military. Sheikh said the security assurances sought had not been forthcoming and voiced fears that Ijaz would not be allowed to leave Pakistan.

"I congratulate the government of Pakistan, which has succeeded in obstructing justice," said Sheikh. "Mr Mansoor Ijaz refuses to knowingly walk into the trap laid by the government."

The controversy has shaken the government and deepened the rift between the civilian administration, led by President Asif Zardari, and the military. The military has already told the court it believes Ijaz's accusations. Ijaz says Haqqani told him he was acting on behalf of "the boss", which he took to mean Zardari.

Haqqani was recalled to Pakistan and forced to resign in November. In the subsequent court case, he risked being tried for treason. Haqqani has said he was not involved in any way in the writing or delivery of the memo, describing the scandal as a "witch-hunt" that threatens the country's democracy.

A judicial commission investigating the affair had been due to record Ijaz's evidence on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Ijaz told the Guardian: "I am coming because it is important that there be no perception left about whether I feared telling the truth on the record, whether I feared the threats, whether I feared the government and its sharp-tongued ministers, whether I feared facing Haqqani and his legal team – I'm ready for all of them."

Pakistan 'memogate' witness refuses to testify | World news | The Guardian

 

[jha]

He is not coming because of safety... ? Good thinking..

 

[VCheng]

Anybody heard of video linkup technology used by courts the world over for remote witness testimony?

 

[LEGENDARY WARRIOR]

Lets see if the Supreme Court sends the Memo Commission outside Pakistan to record his statement...

---------- Post added at 03:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:28 PM ----------

Anybody heard of video linkup technology used by courts the world over for remote witness testimony?

They can also use Skype for it I think but he thinks the govt will dispose off the evidences he has...

 

[Al Bhatti]

And the other day someone was saying (the joker Rehman Malik or Gilani i don't remember), that we cannot spend billions of rupees on the security of one person (referring to Mansoor Ijaz).

So much security for a person? and for the common not even his basic right of security is not fulfilled by even 10% by the government.

Billion rupees for one person that is of of course an exaggerated figure. But in any case they do not want to spend any amount on his security as it will effect their personal bank accounts directly.

---------- Post added at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:47 PM ----------

Anybody heard of video linkup technology used by courts the world over for remote witness testimony?

We have heard, but the special people (selected again and again from 180+ million) sitting in the parliament are school run aways. How do you even think that they will know such thing? They have seen universities in their life only when they go for distributing degrees.

 

[VCheng]

from: Mansoor Ijaz given final chance to appear on Feb 9 | Pakistan | DAWN.COM

ISLAMABAD: A probe into a major scandal threatening Pakistan’s president on Tuesday appeared at risk of collapsing as investigators ruled out travelling abroad to hear the testimony of the star witness.

American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who implicated President Asif Ali Zardari in a May memo seeking US help to rein in Pakistan’s powerful military, has refused to travel to Pakistan, citing fears for his safety.

His testimony is considered key to any case against the president, who faces frenzied speculation that he could be forced out of office over the scandal, attempts to reopen corruption cases and even a bout of reported illness.

Giving Ijaz another opportunity to appear, a three-member judicial commission adjourned until February 9 and said they would ask the Supreme Court to extend their mandate, which was due to end on Saturday.

“The commission cannot go abroad because the Supreme Court has restrained Husain Haqqani, so in the same way, Mansoor Ijaz’s statement should be recorded in Pakistan,” said Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

The judges earlier summoned Interior Minister Rehman Malik to explain how the government could protect Ijaz.

“He will be given box security. I assure you that his name will not be put on exit control list,” Malik told the commission.

Ijaz’s lawyer, Akram Sheikh, earlier told the commission that his client feared being barred from leaving Pakistan. Instead, he has offered to record his testimony in London or Zurich.

“It is better for the image of the country that anyone coming here to give evidence, goes back safely,” Justice Qazi Faez Isa told Malik.

“Mansoor Ijaz is the key person and for me this case is zero without his statement,” Pakistani analyst A.H. Nayyar told AFP.

“If he is not willing to come (to Pakistan) all this means nothing.”

==================================

So Zardari may survive yet again?

 

[Vassnti]

Lets see if the Supreme Court sends the Memo Commission outside Pakistan to record his statement
They can also use Skype for it I think but he thinks the govt will dispose off the evidences he has...

Better to have them dispose of your evidence than dispose of you.

 

[Guvera]

looks like another escape for zardari and another setback for kayani & pasha.

 

[user1]

Mansoor Ijaz seems to be America's bargaining chip for the opening of NATO-ISAF supply route; the day there is a breakthrough in that matter, Mansoor Ijaz will testify and Zardari/Gilani will the sacrificed. They are mere expendable assets.

 

[Fracker]

no need to spend millions of money on one man's security. Court can get his verdict via virtual presence, webcam and other technologies. Also, court can always ask other neutral courts around the world to get the evidence and send to Pakistani court directly. There are many other ways to do things, but is court itself really willing to do something? or it is just to pressurize the government?

 

[VCheng]

from: Banyan: A game of chicken | The Economist

Banyan
A game of chicken
Squeezed between the army and the courts, Pakistan’s civilian government may yet survive
Jan 21st 2012 | from the print edition


In recent months, despite coup threats, economic crisis, a heart scare and incessant vilification in the press, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, has never appeared in public without one constant companion: a stubborn, face-splitting grin. He seems not to have much to smile about. The coalition led by his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is just over a year away from the end of its five-year term. But you could get long odds in Islamabad for a bet on its getting there. Like any civilian government in Pakistan, it survives only so long as the army allows it to, and the army would like to see the back of it. That does not necessarily mean, however, that a coup is looming. There is more than one way to skin a civilian government.

Times have changed since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the country’s first elected leader (and the last to serve a full term in office) was overthrown by a coup in 1977 and later hanged. The pattern set in a more recent phase of democracy, in the 1990s, was to topple governments through legal or constitutional intrigue. Three, including two led by Mr Zardari’s late wife, Benazir Bhutto, fell in that way before a fourth tried to get rid of the army chief, Pervez Musharraf, in 1999, leaving the affronted general no option but to retaliate with an old-fashioned coup.

Even though the PPP’s victory in an election in 2008 has led to an unusually long stint under Mr Zardari and his prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, their sway has hardly been smooth or unchallenged. From the outset their coalition has been engaged in a chaotic tussle for power with the combined forces of the army and the judiciary. This tussle is reaching its climax for two reasons: one letter and one memo.

The letter is one the Supreme Court insists the government write to the Swiss authorities asking them to reopen a money-laundering case against Mr Zardari, despite his presidential immunity. Ever since it was first asked, in 2009, to send the letter, the government has refused. This week the Supreme Court began contempt proceedings against Mr Gilani, who would be disqualified from office if convicted of a crime. Hauled before the court on January 19th, he brazened it out, insisting there was no case to answer, since the president “has complete immunity inside and outside the country.” The hearing resumes on February 1st.

The memo is one sent anonymously in May to the American top brass, soon after Osama bin Laden had been located and killed a stone’s-throw from an elite military academy in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad. Purporting to reflect the views of the highest levels of the Pakistani government, it asked for American help in reining in the army, humiliated by the bin Laden episode and possibly contemplating a coup. The government denies any role in “memogate”. But rather than use the opportunity to profess its loyalty to its civilian masters, the army has used the scandal to unsettle yet more a government it now sees as intolerably treacherous as well as irredeemably corrupt.

However, the army is busy fighting an Islamist insurgency in the north-west, does not want responsibility for Pakistan’s sickly economy, and recalls how unpopular it was towards the end of Mr Musharraf’s eight-year rule. Moreover, after the Arab spring, renewed military dictatorship in Pakistan would look decidedly bad. Nor is it obvious how, constitutionally, to install an unelected “technocratic” caretaker government that might give military rule a civilian glow. So the army has reverted to the usual Plan B, the “soft coup”: the hope that the courts or parliament will somehow oust the PPP, and that a more malleable civilian government will emerge. Concentrating minds is the (indirect) election to the Senate scheduled for the beginning of March. The PPP will gain a majority in the upper house, enabling it to block legislation for years to come.

The court’s action against Mr Gilani brings these tensions to a head. If it orders his arrest, the police, who answer to the government, might not obey. If the court then asks the army to detain him, its action might look indistinguishable from a hard coup. Earlier this week Mr Gilani had called a parliamentary vote that he won easily, in support of “democracy”—in effect a vote of confidence. He seems almost to be daring the army to take him on.

For its part, the army seems to be challenging the PPP to take the initiative and even perhaps fire the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani. But the PPP has decided that if it must lose power, it must be thrown out and be the victim. “Politics is a game of nerves,” says Nayyar Bokhari, a senator and senior PPP member. So far that nerve has held remarkably well, as Mr Zardari has at every turn outsmarted his enemies in the opposition, the army and the courts.

The tracks of whose tears?

That is in part because they seem muddled. The army wants Mr Zardari out, but not to be replaced by the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, who is these days a fierce critic of the generals. For his part, Mr Sharif does not want to see democracy itself derailed. But this week he voted against the “pro-democracy” resolution. Waiting for the election due next year might create further momentum behind the campaign of Imran Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician who is suddenly wildly popular in quarters viewed by Mr Sharif as his power base. So he would like the election brought forward.

When the election is held, it will probably result in another fractured coalition, with the army’s influence as strong or stronger than now. The PPP is right to warn that democracy is at stake in the recent shenanigans. But it has done democracy a huge disservice during four years when its members lined their pockets, while displaying utter indifference to the misery faced by many Pakistanis. This winter households are suffering shortages of electricity, gas and even water, and food inflation is running at an annual rate of some 20%. Mr Zardari’s grin looks out of place.

Economist.com/blogs/banyan

from the print edition | Asia

 

[Guvera]

no need to spend millions of money on one man's security. Court can get his verdict via virtual presence, webcam and other technologies. Also, court can always ask other neutral courts around the world to get the evidence and send to Pakistani court directly. There are many other ways to do things, but is court itself really willing to do something? or it is just to pressurize the government?

Court hasn't done anything from past 3 years and i dont think they r willing to get evidence at all.

 

[Husnainshah]

Yet another hyped up petty scandal bites the dust. Haha

 

[Jango]

why can't they just record it at the airport, Chaklala airport?