BlackBerry maker refuses to hand Memogate data to Pakistan

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it will not release data regarding a memo that said President Asif Ali Zardari had feared a military coup last year, it was reported here.

Geo News reported that the BlackBerry maker has refused to release data related to the memo that led to the stepping down of the country's US envoy Husain Haqqani and a festering row between the military and the political leadership.

The phone manufacturer, based in Canada, has said that their privacy laws prohibit disclosure of a customer's data to any other party without the consent of the parties concerned, hence Pakistan cannot have the information.

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz had reportedly forwarded the memo to then US military chief Gen. Mike Mullen in May last year.

RIM said that their response was to a sealed letter from the attorney general of Pakistan, the media report said.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of the Balochistan high court Qazi Faiz Isa Monday resumed hearing of the memo case.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq said Monday that the Pakistan High Commission in Britain was instructed to issue Pakistan visa to Mansoor Ijaz as soon as his application is received.

The Indian link to Pak’s 'Memogate' scandal

Pakistan’s former Chief of Army Staff Gen (Retd) Mirza Aslam Beg has made the ‘Memogate’ scandal even more interesting.

According to Beg, quoted by Pakistan Observer, the ‘Memogate’ scandal would have made Pakistani Army high command as well as ISI liable for the Abbottabad episode. This would have resulted in the removal of the Army and ISI chiefs. Consequentially, a new security team would have been set up and Hussain Haqqani made premier.

Describing the memo as an international conspiracy, General Beg said after Washington and London, New Delhi was a significant link.

General Beg said that after the success of the plan, the targets of Af-Pak policy would have been achieved through safe and secure withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan and imposition of Indian hegemony in the region, Pakistan Observer wrote.

According to Gen Beg, the plan would have helped the US gain access to Pakistan’s nuclear programme, forced Pakistan to change its foreign policy and accept Indian supremacy.

He further opined that the memo was prepared in Washington and it was got written off by Hussain Haqqani from Mansoor Ejaz, the daily said. The duo then reached London to get it approved by British Chief of Staff Sir David Richard and British Defence Secretary. Then the two handed it over to General James Jones in the US to pass it on to Admiral Mike Mullen.

Believing that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari played no role in the whole episode, Gen Beg revealed that a similar plan was hatched in 1996. Benazir Bhutto had to sacrifice her government as a result of this, he alleged, adding Hussain Haqqani and Mansoor Ejaz were involved that time as well.