ISLAMABAD, Dec 19, (AFP): Pakistan’s Supreme Court built pressure on the country’s embattled leader Monday, weighing whether to open a probe into a memo allegedly from a presidential ally seeking US help to curb the military.
The court examined calls for an investigation into the scandal, including one from opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, as President Asif Ali Zardari returned to Pakistan from two weeks’ of medical treatment in Dubai.
The scandal threatens to embroil Zardari and fan tensions between his weak government and the military, the chief arbiter of power in Pakistan, forcing aides to deny that controversy and illness could see him driven from office.
A nine-judge panel headed by chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry stopped short of ordering an official investigation, but called on respondents and petitioners to submit further details while they weigh a decision.
Chaudhry then adjourned the hearing until Thursday.
In responses submitted to court last week, the attorney general said the petition should be dropped, but army chief Ashfaq Kayani said the memo impacted “national security” and backed an investigation.
The scandal centres on a memo submitted to the then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen on May 10, calling for US intervention to prevent a feared military coup in exchange for overhauling Pakistan’s security leadership.
American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has claimed that Zardari feared the military might overthrow his government and accused Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, of crafting the memo with the president’s support.
Haqqani, who was forced to resign last month, denied any involvement but the court has already put restrictions on him leaving Pakistan.
Zardari, who is immune from prosecution as long as he remains head of state, did not reply in person to the Supreme Court.
“God willing, the constitutional order will remain intact in the country,” Chaudhry told the court.
“You should be thankful to God that the country has a strong and independent judiciary where the army chief and director general ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) are submitting their responses,” he added.
ISI spymaster general Ahmed Shuja Pasha said last week that Ijaz had enough evidence to back up his allegations and called for a “forensic examination” of how the memo came to be written.
Zardari returned suddenly from Dubai overnight, seeking to dispel rumours that scandal and illness could force him from office, arriving under the cover of darkness on a chartered plane in his home city of Karachi.
His aides denied that Zardari’s return had anything to do with the Supreme Court, saying he would meet leaders from his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for business as usual before returning to the capital Islamabad.
“The doctors told him he was fit to travel... and he left for Pakistan. There is no other reason for this,” a senior member of the party told AFP.
“The speculation and controversies are over. He is here and will face all controversies,” added Qamar Zaman Kaira, a leader in the PPP.
The 56-year-old president flew to Dubai on Dec 6 and was kept in the American Hospital until Dec 14 for an illness that has not been officially disclosed, but which aides have likened to a “mini stroke.”
His sudden departure, as the memo scandal developed and amid a major crisis in relations with Washington over NATO’s killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers on Nov 26, fanned frenzied speculation that he might resign.
Retired general Talat Masood said that by returning, Zardari sent a message that he was unconcerned by the court proceedings, but that it was clear the military was expanding its influence at the expense of the government.
“But this does not mean that the military does not understand its own limitations. It knows it cannot possibly dislocate or displace a civilian, constitutionally elected government and replace it,” Masood told AFP.