Islamabad:
A judicial commission probing the memo scandal today directed Pakistan government officials to obtain records of the BlackBerry communications between former envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, and Pakistani-American businessman, Mansoor Ijaz.
The Supreme Court-appointed commission, which held its first meeting today, asked Attorney General Anwar-ul-Haq to contact Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM) and BlackBerry representatives in Pakistan to obtain records of the communications between Haqqani and Ijaz.
Mr Haqqani was forced to resign after Mr Ijaz made public the alleged memo that sought US help to stave-off a possible military takeover in Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin
Laden in Abbottabad in May. Mr Ijaz has claimed that he drafted and delivered the memo on the instructions of Mr Haqqani. He further claimed Mr Haqqani was acting at the behest of President Asif Ali Zardari. These claims have been denied by the Pakistani government.
The Supreme Court had last week formed the three-judge commission to probe the memo issue within four weeks, adding to the pressure on the civilian government over the memogate
scandal. During today's meeting, the commission again issued notices to ISI chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Mansoor Ijaz, Husain Haqqani, former US National Security Advisor James Jones and other key respondents to appear before it.
The commission directed the government to provide security for all respondents who come to record their statements. The next meeting of the commission will be held on January
9.
Attorney General Haq told reporters that his office would write to RIM today to obtain the records of the BlackBerry communication. He said the ISI chief is required to appear before the commission to provide evidence about the contacts between Mr Ijaz and Mr Haq.
Mr Haqqani's counsel Asma Jahangir, one of Pakistan's leading rights activist, yesterday said she would not represent him before the commission as she had no confidence in the
court-appointed panel. She alleged that the court was being influenced by the security establishment.