By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that he sought explanation from the country’s envoy to the US after a secret memo to Washington claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had feared a military coup.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, has meanwhile offered to resign after being linked to the memo.
Gilani told the National Assembly Friday that Haqqani has been asked to explain his position, Geo News reported.
Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz alleged in a column in the Financial Times last month that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked for help in getting a message from Zardari to then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen.
Ijaz alleged that Zardari feared a military takeover following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May and brought unprecedented public scrutiny on Pakistani leaders.
“The ISI is our institution and it would be defended. Friendship with the US should be in a respectful manner,” Geo News quoted Gilani as saying.