Pakistan's judicial panel says ex-envoy has sought US help

Islamabad, June 12 (Xinhua-ANI): A Judicial Commission in Pakistan, which investigated a "memo" that sought U.S. help to stop a possible military coup after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, has said in its report that former ambassador Hussain Haqqani had sought American help.

The findings were was made public as a nine-judge bench began examining the panel's report this morning. According to the report, a Pakistani-American business tycoon, Mansoor Ijaz, disclosed late last year that he had been asked by Hussain Haqqani to deliver a memo to former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, seeking Washington's help to assert control over the powerful army of Pakistan.

Haqqani, who resigned in the wake of the memo controversy last year, had denied writing any document to the U.S. authorities when he had appeared before the Commission.

But the Commission in its findings realsed on Tuesday said that the memo was a reality and that Haqqani had tried to undermine Pakistan's army, its intelligence and nuclear assets.

The Commission observed that Haqqani had not shown loyalty to the state of Pakistan despite being ambassador of the country.

The Commission submitted its report to the Supreme Court of Pakistan which ordered to make the report public. A larger bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, will begin formal hearing of the case after two weeks. The Commission said that Haqqani had assured the U.S. of forming a new security team.

The apex court ordered Haqqani to appear before it when formal hearing will start later this month.

Haqqani announced to challenge the Commission's report.

"One-sided proceedings of Commission that refused to hear me will be challenged by my lawyers," Haqqani said on Twitter.

He said the Commission is not a court and those claiming it has determined guilt or innocence are wrong. "Memo Commission report is bring used to distract attention from other embarrassing issues. Its claims are political, not legal," he said.

The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party called for trial of Haqqani, who is considered very close to the ruling Peoples Party.

The PML-N chief and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had taken the matter to the Supreme Court to seek a thorough investigation.

The army chief and then head of the intelligence agency had also submitted their statements in the Supreme Court and had called for investigation as the military had been blamed in the memo for planning a coup after the death of al-Qaeda chief in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Gilani and government ministers had termed the memo as a fraud when the matter was taken to the country was pushed to a deep political crisis.

Political analysts are of the view that the Commission's report will now put pressure on the government to investigate all players in the whole memo drama, described by Pakistani media as Memogate Scandal. (Xinhua-ANI)