Islam Times - Pak envoy to US resigns over scandal

Islam Times - Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has resigned over a scandal that has exposed the ongoing power struggle between the country's weak civilian government and its powerful military.

The resignation follows an uproar over a confidential memo that requested Washington's help in diminishing the power of the Pakistani army in favor of a US-friendly military presence in the country.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has reportedly accepted his resignation.

"I have requested PM Gilani to accept my resignation as Pakistan's ambassador to the US," he said from his tweeter account on Tuesday.

Haqqani denied that he had either drafted or delivered any memo.

The memo referred to "a dangerous devolution of the ground situation in Islamabad where no control appears to be in place."

The memo offered the US a greater role in Pakistan's internal affairs in exchange for US help in preventing the military establishment from toppling the civilian government.

Haqqani has served as Pakistan's ambassador to the US since 2008.

Tensions between Islamabad and Washington increased following a secret US raid into Pakistan that killed bin Laden in early May.

Pakistani military has since been under pressure to explain why US military helicopters freely carried out the operation on Pakistani soil.

US-Pakistan relations are already strained over the civilian casualties caused by the non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks, which Pakistan has repeatedly condemned as violations of its sovereignty.