ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 (AFP) - Pakistan's powerful army and intelligence chiefs have broken with the government to demand an inquiry into a scandal that threatens to implicate the president, who is abroad following an illness.
They acted after the political opposition asked the Supreme Court to find out who was behind a memo that sought US help to prevent a feared coup and curb the power of the military after Osama bin Laden was killed in May.
The move is significant in a country where the military has staged four coups and remains the chief power broker. It may also increase uncertainty over how long President Asif Ali Zardari remains in office.
The scandal relates to a memo that sought US intervention to prevent a feared military coup in exchange for overhauling Pakistan's security leadership after US troops killed bin Laden near the Pakistani capital on May 2.
The existence of the document came to light when American-Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz wrote in the Financial Times that President Asif Ali Zardari feared the military might overthrow his government.
Ijaz accused Husain Haqqani, the president's close aide and ambassador to Washington, of crafting the memo with Zardari's support.
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif then filed a petition in the Supreme Court on December 1, demanding to know who was responsible for the document delivered to then US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Amiral Mike Mullen, on May 10.
Haqqani denies any involvement but the Supreme Court has already restricted him from leaving Pakistan. He was forced to resign as ambassador last month.
In separate responses submitted to the court late Thursday, the attorney general said the petition should be dropped, but army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said the memo impacted “national security”.
“Therefore, there may be a need to fully examine the facts and circumstances leading to the conception and issuance of the memo,” said the army chief in a copy of his reply obtained by AFP.
The head of the ISI Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha confirmed meeting Ijaz, an American-Pakistani businessman in London on October 22, when he showed him “proof” of messages exchanged with Haqqani by BlackBerry about the memo.
“I was satisfied that he had enough corroborative material to prove his version of the incident,” Pasha said.
He asked the court to summon Ijaz and demand the “forensic examination” of the computers, mobile phones and blackberries used by Ijaz and Haqqani.
Zardari, who is currently resting at his home in Dubai after spending a week in hospital for an undisclosed illness, did not respond in person.
The court is scheduled to resume hearing Sharif' petition on Monday.
For the last week, aides have frantically denied speculation that he will resign over his illness, which has not been officially named, or the scandal.
On Friday, Pakistan's main English-language newspaper Dawn urged him to return home to “calm nerves and quell speculation that refuses to die down”.
“Like it or not, the reality of Pakistan is that threats to the democratic process do lurk in the shadows. It is the responsibility of the civilian political leadership to deal with those threats effectively,” it wrote.
Political analyst Hasan Askari told AFP he could not rule out that health problems may force Zardari to resign “over the next two or three months”.
Analysts dismiss any prospect of a coup, not least because of the major crisis in US relations sparked by the killings of 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border in US-led air strikes last month.
“Chances of an immediate collapse are slim. The government will try to play for time but it won't be able to resolve the issues and and after Senate elections in March the crisis will accentuate,” said Askari.
“The government will then have to take a decision about the president and about the parliamentary elections,” he added.
Zardari's three years in office has been plagued by a litany of crises and calls for his resignation.
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