Military coup was imminent: Mansoor Ijaz (Part one)

Mansoor Ijaz, the architect of the infamous memogate scandal, claimed on Thursday that he had helped former ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani by delivering his message to the then U.S. military chief because he had information about the possibility of a military coup in Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

During the cross-examination before the judicial commission, constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate the memogate, the Pakistani-origin U.S. business tycoon said he had been briefed by at least four intelligence networks of different countries about the possible military coup.

He observed, “I got a secret transcript by the intelligence sources which revealed the movements of ISI’s Chief Gen. Shuja Pasha and other incidents indicating towards a plan of Pakistan military of overthrowing the civil government”.

In quite an odd move, he revealed that he had obtained the information about actions and reactions of Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, President Asif Ali Zardari and the military secretary to the president after the incident, details of foreign visits of the DG ISI and transcripts of conversation between air traffic control staff and the pilots of the US helicopters which raided Osama’s compound in Abbottabad.

A three-member judicial commission headed by Chief Justice Balochistan High Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa was hearing the cross examination of Mansoor Ijaz, the central character of the memogate scandal. The other two members are Chief Justice Sindh High Court, Justice Musheer Alam and Chief Justice Islamabad High Court, Justice Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman.

Mansoor while answering the queries of Advocate Sallauddin Mengal, counsel for petitioners Sana Ullah Zehri and Abdul Qadir Bloch, said that the material he had was sufficient for him to believe that a military coup was at hand.

He said that a source gave him a transcript which revealed a plan of military coup in Pakistan. “ISI Chief Pasha’s visit to foreign countries, his activities after Abbottabad operation and some other things were seconding the Haqqani fears,” he added.

Earlier, he tried to skip the question saying that it was about the national interest of America. However, he disclosed the secrets on the direction of Chairman Commission Justice Qazi Faez Isa. But he did not have revealed the sources of the draft delivered to him about the possible coup.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=14435

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Mar 2 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.