Fate of Pakistan's Zardari may hinge on scandal of purported memo

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gucci outlet All over Pakistan, people are asking whether Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari approved a memo asking for Washington's help in reining in the country's powerful military.

The answer could play a role in whether Zardari, already deeply unpopular with both the public and the military, stays in power.

The scandal scorching the airwaves in Pakistani cities and towns now has a name — Memogate — and it is sparking talk of early elections. At the center of it all is Pakistani American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who says a senior Pakistani diplomat asked him to convey a letter to Washington seeking its help in preventing a military takeover of Zardari's administration.

In return, said in the letter, Zardari Government will eliminate wing Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI, and Afghanistan insurgent groups maintain contact will root out Afghanistan militants hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas of the US military "green light".

Ijaz says Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, asked him to be the intermediary and that Zardari had endorsed the memo. The explosive allegations prompted Haqqani to offer his resignation as a way of defusing the controversy, though he denies either writing the memo or asking Ijaz to pass it on to Washington.

Unless Haqqani can show that the memo was fabricated, he could be ousted from his post. But analysts say the crisis also casts a shadow on Zardari, who has been criticized by many Pakistanis for his closeness to the American government, which they mistrust, as well as his failure to solve the country's myriad economic and infrastructure ills.

"It might be a game-changer in the political arena, with the military concluding there's no way it can trust the Zardari government," said Pakistani columnist and legal expert Babar Sattar. "If the military isn't willing to let this go, it could reduce the term of this government. That might be the only resolution: to hold early elections."