Raja Jawad Abbas, secretary of the memo commission, Mansoor Ijaz, the central character of the memogate scandal, two forensic experts and two officials from the Pakistan High Commission were present for the daylong procedure.However, Husain Haqqani expressed his lack of confidence in the forensic experts and refused to appear before them.

The forensic experts ran checks through Mansoor Ijazís BlackBerry sets, emails, telephone calls and SMS messages. A source told The News that the forensic experts were able to find new evidence in possession of Mansoor Ijaz which would also be sent to the memogate commission.

The Judicial Commission probing the memo scam had issued notices to both parties to either appear in person or instruct their representatives to appear before the forensic experts at the High Commission of Pakistan.

But Husain Haqqani refused to appear in person and did not instruct his lawyers to appear before the experts as part of the former envoy’s decision to withdraw from the commission’s proceedings.

A source close to Husain Haqqani told The News that the former ambassador had decided not to cooperate with the commission because Haqqani was notified on May 8 of the forensics being scheduled for May 10.

ìHow did the commission expect us to find a representative in London at such short notice?î said a member of the Haqqani legal team. He alleged the commission had chosen a forensics expert in March when the commission secretary was in London, but withheld that information from Haqqani’s side.ìThe commission was set up as a fact-finding probe but they have made it clear they only want to facilitate Mansoor Ijaz in telling his story,î the source in Haqqani’s camp told The News.