Ijaz submits his BlackBerry and 'other evidences'

Controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz on Wednesday submitted his BlackBerry phone and "other evidences" to a Pakistan judicial commission probing the memo scandal that shook the country's powerful military as well as political establishments.

Ijaz, who had refused to travel to Pakistan to appear before the Supreme Court appointed commission citing security reasons, deposed via video link from London, and maintained

that he wrote the memo at behest of former envoy to US Husain Haqqani after the killing of Osama bin Laden last year in May.

The memo had put the Pakistani establishment into a whirlpool and had led to speculation of a possible coup.

The memo triggered a tense standoff and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had criticised the handling of the memo issue by the army and Inter-Services Intelligence.

Ijaz came to the Pakistan High Commission in London to record his statement through video conferencing while the three-judge commission conducted the proceedings from Islamabad.

Ijaz submitted his BlackBerry phone and other evidences to the secretary of the judicial commission investigating the affair, the Dawn news network reported.

He also provided details of his contacts with Pakistani leaders and ISI officials.

The businessman read out a statement that he had submitted earlier to the Supreme Court, news channels here reported. He claimed his contacts with Pakistan's former envoy to

the US, for the alleged memo, began on May 3 last year – a day after the killing of bin Laden in Abbottabad by US commandos.