Islam Times - Pakistan's US ambassador returns home amid memo scandal

Islam Times - Pakistani President Asif Zardari is in a hot soup. His close aide and country’s ambassador to Washington Hussain Haqqani is at the centre of what appears to be a documented evidence surfaced in the media that he wrote a secret memo allegedly with the consent of the President seeking US military intervention.

The secret memo reveals that the ambassador assured the US to replace top military officials and allow the US troops to hunt down senior Al-qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan after US media alleged that the US Navy Seal killed Osama Bin Laden in a similar action in the northwest of country in May this year.

Mansoor Ijaz, an influential American businessman known for his links within US government has disclosed that he channeled the secret memo to the outgoing US Joint Chief of Staff Mike Mullen on the behalf of the ambassador.

Mullen after initial denial, has now finally confirmed to have received the secret memo---something which has strained civilian government relations with the military.

The evidence of exchange of blackberry messages between the ambassador and the middleman about the contents of the secret memo is now a public record.

The government concedes to the record of blackberry communication but denies authorizing any such secret memo terming it a conspiracy to dislodge the civilian-setup.
The military seems to be upset with President Zardari over the secret memo.

The mainstream Opposition has warned the army against any attempt to stage a coup against the government. The Opposition however, has demanded the government to set up high level Commission to probe the scandal and punish those involved in authorizing the secret memo, an act of high treason under Pakistan ’s law.