Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington has been summoned to Islamabad following reports that he sought US help to rein in the country’s powerful generals in the wake of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, officials said.
Pakistan’s political elite has been gripped by a controversy unfolding in the country’s media over a memorandum that appears to contain a plea from Pakistan’s civilian authorities for US backing for moves to assert control over the military.
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The existence of the memo was revealed byMansoor Ijaz, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, in a column in the Financial Times on October 10.
Mr Ijaz, who makes venture capital investments, says he played a role in helping deliver the memo to Admiral Mike Mullen, who was then chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, a week after the May 2 raid that killed Bin Laden.
The revelations over the memo have sparked a political firestorm in Pakistan, where attempts by civilians to assert control over the army tend to encounter stiff resistance from generals.
Mr Ijaz has not publicly named the memo’s authors, but several Pakistani newspapers have speculated that it was authorised by Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s envoy to the US, who is regarded as a close ally of Asif Ali Zardari, the president.
A foreign ministry official said that Mr Haqqani had been recalled for consultations in Islamabad. A source in Pakistan’s presidency went further, saying Mr Haqqani had offered to resign – although Mr Zardari’s spokesman was not available for comment and Mr Haqqani could not be reached in Washington.
“Husain Haqqani wrote a letter to the president saying that if this deadlock can be resolved by his resignation then he is willing to step down,” said the source in the presidency.
A senior official in the ruling Pakistan People’s party also said Mr Haqqani had offered to resign from the post, which he has held since 2008.
Mr Haqqani has been a key figure in the complex alliance between the US and Pakistan, which encompasses issues from counter-terrorism co-operation to nuclear security and the future of western efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
His departure would throw fresh uncertainty into the relationship and underscore the power wielded by Pakistan’s military establishment over their civilian counterparts.
“The government was under pressure from the [military] establishment on the matter of Husain Haqqani’s role in communicating a message to the US after Osama bin Laden’s killing,” said the official.
The memo contained a plea for US support to deter Pakistan’s generals from mounting a coup in the highly charged political atmosphere after bin Laden’s death. In return, the authors of the memo pledged to work with the US to check the power of Pakistan’s generals, and in particular to curb the activities of the intelligence services in backing militants in Afghanistan, Mr Ijaz said.
Mr Haqqani had said earlier on Wednesday that he had no involvement with the memo. Pakistan’s government has denied sending it. Adm Mullen last week issued a statement saying he had no recollection of receiving the memo.
However, Captain John Kirby, who served as spokesman for Adm Mullen during his tenure as chairman of the joint chiefs, said on Wednesday that Adm Mullen had since double-checked with several other people, one of whom produced a copy of the memo. “He did not find it at all credible and took no note of it then or later,” Capt Kirby said. “Therefore, he addressed it with no one.”
Additional reporting by James Crabtree in London
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