Rejoinder filed 7,000 visas issued without security clearance: petitioner

A petitioner in Memogate case alleged on Saturday that Pakistan embassy in the US issued a total of 7,000 visas to American citizens from 2008 to date without clearance. Of these, 450 were stamped in one single night. The petitioner, Advocate of Supreme Court Tariq Asad, informed the SC about visa details while filling a rejoinder in the case.
The petitioner sought directions of the apex court to ask the respondents in Memo case to file comprehensive replies before the court instead of brief statements. Asad contended in his rejoinder that replies submitted by the CoAS, DG ISI, Federation and Haqqani in the memo case did not corroborate with the contents of the petitions, arguing that the Attorney General for Pakistan did not even go through the petitions before he filed replies in accordance with the orders of the apex court.
The petitioner further pleaded that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC had issued more than 7000 visas to American citizens without security clearance, "which is instrumental in bringing the situation to present level". He said the Pakistani Ambassador to the US issued as many as 1895 official and diplomatic visas from January to July 2010. According to him, from July 14, to August 30, 2010 as many as 1445 visas were issued to US citizens mostly under the "garb of diplomats" without security clearance.
According to him, the DG ISI was not supplied copies of the petitions. Asad argued that Asma Jahangir, the counsel for Husain Haqqani, had submitted a reply in response to PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif's petition. However, he added, other petitions have been entirely ignored.
The petitioner also urged the SC to determine why former DG FIA Tariq Khosa sought declined to head a one-member judicial commission to investigate the Memogate matter. The petitioner, however, expressed satisfaction over the witness statement of Mansoor Ijaz.