Memogate: Malik seeks to depose before Pak commission

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik has sought to depose before the Special Commission constituted by the Pakistan Supreme Court probing the 'memogate' scandal, after key player Mansoor Ijaz claimed that the separatist leader met a senior Research and Analysis Wing official in Delhi.

In a letter to Pakistan Chief Justice Iftkhar M Chaudhury through his counsel Zaffar Ahmad Shah, Malik said he should be given an opportunity to depose before the commission for clearing his position.

"A request was sent to the Pakistan Commission that Malik would like to depose before it," Shah said. Ijaz had claimed that Malik had met a senior RAW official in Delhi at the insistence of intelligence agencies of the United States.

However, the JKLF leader denied having ever met any of RAW official and asserted that if the allegation is proven, he will retire from public life.

In the letter, Malik claimed he had some relevant information with regard to the commission but would not divulge those in it. "... he (Malik) would like to make free, fair and truthful statement before the commission, which will go a long way in finding answers to the questions forming subject of the reference," Shah said in the letter.

Pakistan's Supreme Court had on December 30 ordered the setting up of a judicial commission to probe the memo scandal. The memogate scandal pertains to a memo delivered by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to the Pentagon with a plea for US help to stave off a feared military coup after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

The court's ruling came after a series of petitions was filed before it seeking a probe into the scandal. While the government had opposed such a probe, the powerful military as

well as the Inter-Services Intelligence wanted an investigation.