Mansoor Ijazs letter echoes in NA: Govt comes under sever criticism

Letter from the government to US officials against army chief and ISI echoed Thursday in the National Assembly as President Asif Ali Zardari was made target of sever criticism by opposition. PML-Ns MNA Khurram Dastagir said on point of order that President Zardari was in contact on international forum and President Zardari wrote to Obama administration and we were told a lie about the issue. Another MNA of PML-N Tasneem Siddiqui said that last night Former Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Mike Mullen has acknowledged that he received the Ijaz memo but he never paid any attention to it. That was another insult of Pakistan as US officials said that he never considered a letter from Pakistan as attention-worthy, she said. PPP leader and MNA Fauzia Wahab said President Zardari wrote no secret letter and raising such an issue is to damage unity of the country. She added that Mansoor Ijaz who claimed to hand over a letter to Mullen is neither a diplomat nor part of Pakistani foreign ministry or the government. The issue of letter is nothing but a plot aiming at destruction of the unity of Pakistan, she said. It is pertinent to mention that without naming anyone a high level government official was blamed for using him to convey a letter to Mullen by Mansoor Ijaz, a US national, in his article published in financial times a couple of days ago. On Oct 10, Mr Ijaz claimed that President Zardari had sought Washingtons help for removing the army and ISI chiefs and had assured the Obama administration that he would cut all ties to militant groups if it assisted him do so. According to media reports, issue of the letter not only turned into a hot topic in the parliament and political circle but have also created rift between the government and army which is claimed to be resolved soon. President of Pakistan has summoned Pakistani Ambassador in Washington Hussain Haqqani, who was also blamed to have role in the letters issue, to Islamabad to solve the enigma and move toward some solution.

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