Islamabad, Dec 17: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday said there was “no truth” in the alleged secret memo sent to the US military to help prevent a possible takeover by the Pakistan Army after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.
Addressing a meeting of parliamentarians of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, Gilani said the “Memogate” affair was a conspiracy against his government and democracy.
The meeting was attended by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of ailing President Asif Ali Zardari who is recuperating in Dubai.
Bilawal, who has stepped in to take on a larger role in the PPP's affairs since his father travelled to Dubai on December 6 to seek treatment for a heart condition, told the meeting that conspiracies were hatched against the PPP whenever it came to power.
He said the government of his slain mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto, was ousted through false accusations, Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying.
During the meeting, some PPP lawmakers expressed the opinion that if Pakistan's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, was made to resign due to allegations linking him to the memo, then the same should be expected from Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha as he had been accused of involvement in a move to oust President Zardari.
The meeting decided that the PPP should mount a “strong response” to the Memogate scandal instead of surrendering, the channel reported.
The PPP-led government has been at the centre of a storm since Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz made public the alleged memo that was delivered to former US military chief Mike Mullen a week after the raid that killed bin Laden.
The chiefs of the army and the ISI have asked the Supreme Court to conduct a thorough inquiry into the memo while the government has contended that the probe should be done by a parliamentary panel.
