With the memogate scandal turning into something of a damp squib with the passage of time, Mansoor Ijaz has tried to give a new twist to the case. Of late, he is alleged to be planning to ask the memo commission to summon President Asif Ali Zardari for cross-examination after a contradiction by the ISPR and the Presidency that there had been no meeting between President Zardari and General Kayani on the night of May 1 about Operation Geronimo.
The proceedings would resume on March 15. According to reports, the President’s summons can be made once former Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani makes his statement before the Commission. And as the proceedings have shown, it is becoming clear that the memogate scandal is not only limited to the alleged writing of the memo but a number of other red herrings claimed by Mr Ijaz. So much so that it seems an entire Pandora’s box of conspiracies and allegations. One really wonders what light President Zardari could throw on the case, except for sticking to his stand that he has nothing to do with the memo. And secondly, Mr Ijaz keeps contradicting himself, which in fact makes all his claims somewhat ridiculous. For instance, one such example is that he claims to have the transcript of the conversation between President Zardari and General Kayani immediately after Abbottabad incident. Also he claims to have received an email from someone, about the conversation between Pakistan’s Air Traffic Control and US helicopters on their way to Osama bin Laden’s compound. The strange thing is that he would neither name this source to the Commission nor explain how he got his hands on the transcript revealing the conversation between President Zardari and General Kayani. He has also submitted the record of his phone bill to the memo commission. This only shows the dates on which calls were made to Mr Haqqani’s number. In the absence of the record of actual phone conversation, this would only further raise complexities.
The fact that Mansoor Ijaz, the main man behind the memo scandal has himself turned the case into a riddle by his contradictory statements, the real purpose of the proceedings which is reaching at the truth has been apparently lost. While it is highly important that truth should be found out, the main focus should be on forensic evidence and concrete clues so as to unravel the whole mystery quickly.