Body to act in accordance with law if Ijaz doesn’t show up: Rabbani

ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Committee on National Security has declared that it will act according to law of the land if Mansoor Ijaz, the main character in Memogate scandal, fails to appear before the panel on Jan 26.

The multi-party parliamentary panel, which met on Tuesday at the Parliament House here with Senator Mian Raza Rabbani in the chair insisted that it had the mandate to summon anybody, including the Pakistan-born US citizen Mansoor Ijaz. Ijaz has also been summoned by the parliamentary panel to appear before it on Jan 26 (Thursday).

The committee on Tuesday also received written statements of Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Gen. Shuja Pasha and Pakistan’s former envoy to Washington Husain Haqqani. However, Ijaz has not submitted his written statement so far.

Later, speaking to media persons, Rabbani said the panel had asked attorney general for Pakistan Anwarul Haq to appear before the committee in its next meeting on Thursday to apprise it about the security concerns of Mansoor Ijaz. After it hears the attorney general, the panel will chalk out future course of action regarding Ijaz in accordance with laws of the land, according to Rabbani. He said he had talked to attorney general on telephone and he (the AGP) would be submitting the BlackBerry record of the conversation between Ijaz and Haqqani to the panel by Tuesday evening.

To a question, he said the panel was functioning as a quasi-judicial body and it had no concern with the debate going on outside the committee. To another question regarding objection by some political parties about the jurisdiction of the committee, Rabbani said that the panel had reached conclusion that there existed no question of objection over its jurisdiction and mandate.

Responding to another query, the chairman of the panel said he never discussed the memo issue with President Asif Ali Zardari and rejected the impression that he was greatly influenced by the president to favour Haqqani.

He further said the committee had issued notices to all concerns it considered necessary.

Meanwhile, sources said Husain Haqqani, in his written statement to the committee, has reiterated his earlier stance, declaring the memo as baseless.