US businessman Mansoor Ijaz said in a statement on Saturday that he would come to Pakistan and reveal the truth. According to him, former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani cannot make an escape through "petty tactics of intimidating" his counsel Akram Sheikh to change the course of justice. Ijaz responded through an email to his counsel Akram Sheikh which was later made available to Business Recorder.
"I am positively coming to Pakistan Mr Haqqani and I am going to tell a truth which you will no longer be able to hide from - I will tell it with such a clarity and vigour that you and your brilliant legal team will find no space to run - I welcome your cross-examination and look forward to uncover the truths, half-truths and whole lies that have been told thus far are clarified in front of the people of Pakistan so that truth and transparency become the enduring legacy for government that is of the people, for the people and by the people," Ijaz stated in his email.
"Legal counsel for Husain Haqqani, the embattled former ambassador, made frivolous and abjectly absurd filings against one of Pakistan's most decorated legal minds, my counsel Mr Akram Sheikh, on Friday," Ijaz said. According to him, filings by Haqqani to PBC carry absolutely no meat and demonstrate that Haqqani has lost his nose to comprehend basic English as he sits in a solitary confinement at Prime Minister's House uselessly scheming and plotting against his own design.
"Haqqani has no right to attack Akram Sheikh who is acting with my consent and made public certain threats to my (Ijaz) life as security arrangements were being made for me to come to Pakistan and testify in front of the Judicial Commission," Ijaz added.
Ijaz claimed that these threats were sent to the same e-mail address that he used to communicate the original draft of the Memorandum in question which Haqqani had asked him to transmit to Admiral Mike Mullen in May. Ijaz further stated that his counsel Akram Sheikh never said that Haqqani was responsible for the threats that he received, adding that Sheikh said that Ijaz was receiving the threats from the same addresses from which Ijaz had been communicating with Haqqani earlier. Ijaz "recommended" Haqqani to read the statement again, substantiating his claim.
"This latest episode in Haqqani's drama shows how clearly adept he is at misinforming the public by manipulating words and creating fiction from non-existent reality. The people of Pakistan should take notice - his behaviour patterns are the same as they were in May when he asked me to help him deliver the Memorandum," Ijaz added.
Ijaz alleged that Haqqani had orchestrated a media campaign against him since the latter's resignation in November, designed to introduce doubts and exploit the complexities and nuances of this case that were entirely designed by him with, according to him, authority from his "boss".
"In doing so, he has failed miserably to dent the fundamental facts and corroborative evidence that I will put on the record in front of the Commission that demonstrate his originating role, his higher authority for doing so and his efforts to cover his tracks once the Memorandum came to public knowledge," Ijaz further said.
Ijaz accused Haqqani of furthermore orchestrating a political campaign in Washington to bolster his own credentials, "bought and paid for by Pakistani taxpayer funds, that have only served to deepen suspicions about where his real loyalties lie."
According to Ijaz, having failed in any way to address the facts in front of the Commission, Haqqani and his lawyers now seek to attack Akram Sheikh as part of their overall strategy to deter and even alter the course of justice with stall tactics, intimidation schemes and political brinkmanship in the hopes that "I will somehow be cowered down and not turn up to testify."
It may be mentioned here that the former ambassador on Friday requested Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to initiate proceedings against Ijaz's counsel Akram Sheikh. According to him, Sheikh had been issuing baseless statements that his client has received threats to his life in an email from Haqqani.
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