Memo Gate: Ijaz to record testimony via video link from London

Herald Globe (ANI) Friday 10th February, 2012

The Memo Gate commission has decided that Pakistan-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz's statement will be recorded via video link from Pakistan High Commission in London.

The head of the commission, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of Balochistan High Court said that the lawyers will be consulted and then a date will be decided for Ijaz to come to the Pakistani High Commission to have his statement recorded, The Express Tribune reports.

The commission will carry out its proceedings in the Islamabad High Court while only the commission's secretary will go to London in order to supervise and arrange the video link.

Lawyers in Islamabad will reportedly cross-examine the video conference.

Pakistan's former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani's counsel strongly opposed the commission's decision saying that it will create a prejudice if, in the future, his client is not allowed to have his statement recorded via video conferencing in America.

Justice Isa also said that if any lawyer wants to go to London on his own expense, then the court does not have any reservations on it.

Earlier today, the government of Pakistan wrote a letter to the BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM), requesting for data from the handsets allegedly used by Ijaz and Haqqani

Barrister Zafarullah said that Ijaz will "never appear before the commission," adding that the commission should not go abroad in order to have his statement recorded. He further said that the commission should concentrate on the secondary evidences like papers and documents submitted to the court, to give out its verdict. (ANI)