There was no threat of military coup: Pasha

Former Director-General of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha on Thursday told the Memogate Commission that there was no planning of staging a coup after the May 2 raid against al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by the US SEALS.
The commission comprises Chief Justice Balochistan High Court, Justice Qazi Faez Issa, Chief Justice Sindh High Court, Justice Musheer Alam and Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman. The former ISI chief said it would have been in the knowledge of the ISI if there was any coup threat.
According to Pasha, his meeting with US businessman Mansoor Ijaz was to examine the veracity of information that the latter made public in his article carried by The Financial Times. He said it was his first meeting with Ijaz and that he had no previous acquaintance with him.
He wanted to know the identity of memo's author and directed a third person in the ISI to contact Ijaz who agreed to meet him, Pasha added. As the military top brass had asked him to proceed ahead, the meeting was arranged at a London hotel on October 22, 2011, which lasted for four hours, according to Pasha.
Meanwhile, the judicial commission investigating the Memogate scandal dismissed the appeal of former Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani for an adjournment on grounds that he is under cardiac treatment in a US hospital. The commission also disposed of the case of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik after he was cross-examined by the counsel for Mansoor Ijaz.
The commission which met under the chairmanship of Justice Faez Issa rejected for the second time the plea of Haqqani to record his testimony via a video link from the UK and adjourned the hearing till Friday. Minutes before reading out the adjournment order, Justice Issa informed Zahid Bukhari, counsel for Haqqani, that he must appreciate the patience of the commission as it was not passing any adverse order against Haqqani.
Bukhari stated before the commission that his client had been undergoing cardiac treatment for the last three years. Currently, he is feeling chest pain and scheduled to meet doctors at two different places (Ohio and Philadelphia) on April 4 for MRI and CT Scan tests. Zahid also produced two letters in support of his statement.
However, the commission did not find his explanation plausible. Justice Issa said the letters in fact indicated that Haqqani was not in a serious condition as he was visiting hospitals in other cities. Haqqani had been living in Washington DC as he had mentioned in his testimony. The commission further directed the counsel for Haqqani to write a letter to Research in Motion (RIM) with a view to retrieving data of snap shots of BBMs that took place between Haqqani and Ijaz in the aftermath of May 2, 2011 incident.
Ijaz's counsel Akram Sheikh asked him cross-examining Yasin Malik, whether or not he was an Indian national holding an Indian passport. Shaikh said that Malik had met some RAW officials. According to Sheikh, he possesses video records to substantiate his claim. Malik, while rejecting the allegation, said he had three meetings with Ijaz but he never met any official from any agency and that he would resign from the chairmanship of JKLF if proven wrong.