Pakistan court approves 'memogate' probe

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday said it would establish a commission to investigate a controversial unsigned memo asking for American help in curbing the power of the military. The memo was allegedly an attempt by a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari to enlist the US military's help to head off a feared military coup in May in exchange for overhauling the country's powerful top security leadership. The new probe puts fresh pressure on the president, who visited Dubai earlier this month over health fears, with most observers expecting early elections sometime in 2012. "The court has established a commission for the investigation into the memo case. The Chief Justice of the Baluchistan High Court will lead this commission," Attorney-General Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq told reporters outside the Supreme Court building. The court's judgement said that the commission would return its findings within four weeks. The government had requested to allow only the national security committee to probe the case -- dubbed "Memogate" -- but the opposition and intelligence chief wanted an independent inquiry. "I hope that the commission set up by the Supreme Court will complete the inquiry within four weeks. This is not a difficult job," said Rasheed Rizvi, lawyer for opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who filed the court petition. The memo is controversial because it offered to overhaul Pakistan's security leadership in exchange for American assistance, as public relations plummeted after the secret US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2. Tensions between the army and government soared this month over the note, allegedly delivered to then US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, in May and first made public by an American-Pakistani businessman in October. Businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed that Zardari feared the military might overthrow his government and accused Haqqani of crafting the memo with the president's support. Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, last week denied rumours that the military is plotting to overthrow the government. On Monday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani denied that he wanted to sack Kayani or ISI chief lieutenant general Ahmad Shuja Pasha. ISI spymaster Pasha said last week that Ijaz had enough evidence to back up his allegations and called for a "forensic examination" of the memo. Islamabad's ambassador to Washington at the time the memo was sent, Husain Haqqani, has already resigned over the affair, and the court has stopped him from leaving Pakistan. The court's order requires contact to be made with the Canada-based company Research in Motion in an attempt to obtain records of Blackberry messages allegedly exchanged between Ijaz and Haqqani, who denies his involvement. "This is a black day. This is very disappointing judgment," said his lawyer Asma Jehangir in response to Friday's judgment. "Today we feel that the military authority is superior to the civilian authority. Today, the struggle for the transition to democracy has been blocked."