ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: A three-member judicial commission set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the `memogate` scandal decided on Monday to summon former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani on January 9 and asked him and Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to turn in their BlackBerry sets, relevant record and other related devices.

The commission, headed by Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, directed the federal government to provide security to Mr Haqqani and Mr Ijaz when they would come to attend the proceedings.

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman are two other members of the commission. It also asked the government to enable Mr Haqqani to engage a lawyer of his choice to represent him in the commission.

Asma Jehangir, who represented Mr Haqqani in the Supreme Court during the hearing on maintainability of the petitions concerning the memo, withdrew from the case on Sunday, saying she had no trust in the commission.

At the request of Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, the commission also issued notices to the 10 petitioners, including PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, and the respondents, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, ISI Director General Lt-Gen Shuja Pasha, former US adviser on national security James Jones and secretaries of the interior and foreign affairs.

Justice Faez Isa also asked the government to contact Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), the service provider of BlackBerry, through its high commission. The commission`s secretary has been asked to send a notice, along with the Supreme Court order, to the RIM for seeking data of messengers, voice mails and emails of BlackBerry sets of Mr Haqqani and Mr Ijaz. The commission directed the interior secretary to make available a local representative of the RIM who could assist the court in retrieving the data of BlackBerry sets. The attorney general has been asked to arrange forensic and technical experts from the ministry of information technology, Inter-Services Intelligence and Federal Investigation Agency.

The cabinet secretary has been tasked to designate a focal person who can coordinate with government departments and private sector representatives.

The attorney general informed the commission that he had only represented the federal government and assisted the apex court.

Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, who on a number of occasions had represented the ISI, said he had represented the federal government, and not the ISI.

When asked about the absence of Mr Haqqani, the attorney general said he was perhaps unable to find a lawyer and might take some more time.

Members of the commission reminded him that the Supreme Court had given them four weeks to complete the task and they could not give indefinite time to Mr Haqqani for engaging a lawyer.

The attorney general said the Pakistani embassy in Washington would confirm the delivery of notices to General Jones and Mr Ijaz, but since they were foreign nationals he could not promise that they would attend the next hearing.

He said the government would produce some witnesses in its defence after hearing the other side.

The commission expressed displeasure over non-compliance of its orders by the director general of Press Information Department to publish the notices in the national press.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir informed the commission that the ministry of foreign affairs had not initiated any internal inquiry into the memo scandal because the matter had been taken up by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and the Supreme Court and also because of the fact that Mr Haqqani was not a career diplomat.