Mansoor Ijaz won't testify in Pakistan: Akram Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: A star witness asked to appear by Pakistani judges investigating a major scandal threatening President Asif Ali Zardari will not visit Pakistan over concerns about his safety, his lawyer said Monday.

US businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who is willing to record testimony in London or Zurich, has implicated Zardari in a secret memo seeking US help to curb the power of the military, apparently fearful of being toppled in an army coup.

Ijaz's testimony is considered key to any case against the president, who faces frenzied speculation that he could be forced out over the scandal, ill health and separate legal attempts to re-open old corruption cases.

Police in Islamabad said Monday they were willing to safeguard Ijaz's security, but his lawyer Akram Sheikh told reporters that his client feared being detained indefinitely if he steps foot on Pakistani soil.

"It seems like a well-orchestrated trap to hold Mr Ijaz indefinitely in Pakistan after his deposition before the commission," Sheikh said, adding that his client had requested that his testimony be recorded in London or Zurich.

"Mr Ijaz refuses to walk knowingly into the trap being laid by the government and waits to speak the truth of this case."

In an opinion piece in the Financial Times on October 10, Ijaz alleged that a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned him asking for help because Zardari needed to communicate an urgent message to the Americans.

Zardari's close aide and then Pakistani ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, who flatly denied writing the memo, has been forced to resign over the scandal known locally as "memogate".

Pakistan's attorney general said everything had been done to ensure Ijaz's security but said there was "no medicine for suspicion".

"We had assured him foolproof security and army was also on board and an army officer was deputed for this purpose," said Maulvi Anwarul Haq.

"I think he does not want to come," he added, saying it was up to the commission to decide how to proceed further.

The panel is expected to determine later this month whether the government endorsed the note, which was delivered on May 10 to Admiral Mike Mullen, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time.

The government has told the commission it cannot obtain allegedly crucial BlackBerry message data sent between Haqqani and Ijaz because the manufacturers refuse to divulge records without customers' permission.

Ijaz's lawyer said his client fears "electronic evidence" can be destroyed and has also declined to appear before a parliamentary committee separately investigating the memo issue.

Tensions between Pakistan's powerful army and weak civilian government have soared over the scandal, one of a series of crises considered likely to force early elections within months.

Pakistan's spymaster, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, advised the Supreme Court to order a judicial investigation based on Ijaz's evidence. AGENCIES

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