Zardari in fresh trouble

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Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is again in the hot waters as Pakistani-American Mansoor Ijaz, the man at the centre of the Memogate scandal, told the judicial commission that the secret memo sent by him to the US military leadership to stop Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani from staging a coup, was basically from Mr Zardari.

“The ambassador (sacked envoy to the US, Hussain Haqqani) told me it was from the President,” Mr Ijaz said while testifying via live video link from London before a judicial commission in Islamabad. Mr Ijaz said he delivered the secret memo seeking American help to avert a feared coup after Mr Haqqani told him it was from the President.

After the revelation, media reports said President Zardari has been mysteriously admitted to a Dubai hospital for a medical check up. His spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, however, denied the reports saying the President was 'healthy and at home'.

Mr Ijaz said the controversial memo was allegedly an attempt by Mr Zardari, through his close aide and former envoy Hussain Haqqani, to enlist help from the US military to head off a feared coup in Pakistan in 2011 after the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy Seals in 2012.

Khar, Clinton meeting aimed at improving ties: US

Confirming the meeting of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton with Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday on the sidelines of the 2012 London Somalia Conference, US state department spokesman Mark Toner said that both leaders had many things to discuss.

“Our goal remains to put this relationship back on track, you know, to try to put some of the
problems that we have had in the relationship, some of the challenges
behind us and move productively forward.”

Ms Khar had said on Tuesday that she hoped Pakistan and the United States could sort out their differences but warned that there would be preconditions to resetting the relationship.

“We hope that for the goals that we share, the shared goals and objectives in the region, that of peace and stability within the region, within Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States will be able to foster our ties. However, there are certain preconditions for that.”