London: Controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who is at the centre of the memogate scandal was on Friday issued one-year multiple entry visa for Pakistan.
Ijaz is to appear before a judicial commission probing the memo scandal on January 24, and before the Parliamentary Commission on National Security (PCNS) on January 26. “Pakistan High Commission issued one year multi-entry visa for Pakistan to Mr Musawer Mansoor Ijaz, a US citizen today,” a statement from the mission in the UK has said.
“Ijaz was also extended other consular services at the High Commission,” the statement said. “He was also served the notice issued by Parliamentary Committee on National Security asking him to submit his written statement on January 24, 2012 and to appear before the Committee on January 26, 2012 in connection with a probe into the alleged memo,” it added.
Ijaz , accompanied by his lawyer, personally visited the High Commission on Thursday where he was issued a one-year multiple visa to Pakistan. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan earlier said this evening that Ijaz contacted the mission from the airport, saying that he wanted to come to the High Commission.
According to sources, Ijaz was earlier reported to have said that he was unable to reach the Pakistani High Commission in London due to security concerns, the Geo TV said. Ijaz also voiced concern over the presence of the media outside the building, after which the Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan offered Ijaz to visit to the commission after office hours.
Moreover, Wajid assured Ijaz over a telephone conversation that he would be issued a visa as soon as his passport was received. Ijaz had said he planned to fly to Pakistan to depose before courts what he claimed as “unaltered truth”.
The controversial allegations made by Ijaz reach all the way up to President Asif Zardari, and could result in the bringing of treason charges against the country’s former ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani or even the president himself. Earlier Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in Islamabad, that Ijaz has contacted the Pakistan’s mission in Switzerland by email for obtaining a visa to depose before a judicial panel probing the memo scandal.
“I have been informed by Pakistan’s Ambassador in Switzerland that Mansoor Ijaz has approached (the embassy) and he was supposed to come on Monday for the visa but he did not turn up until Thursday,” Malik had said. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit had said Pakistan has not received a visa application from Ijaz,the main accuser in the memo scandal, in any country. (PTI)