ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has again defended his decision of taking the memo controversy to the Supreme Court and said he did it only to expose people behind the “conspiracy against the country’s sovereignty, vital interests and vital assets”.

Talking to reporters outside the Islamabad High Court on Monday after attending the proceedings of a three-member judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court last month to investigate the memo issue, Mr Sharif made it clear that he had not nominated President Asif Ali Zardari, former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani or Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz as accused in his petition. “I moved the judiciary only to unmask the faces behind the memo controversy, which is a serious and grave issue.”

Mr Sharif had moved the court after President Zardari and Mr Haqqani denied sending any memo to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen through Mansoor Ijaz allegedly seeking Washington’s help to avert a perceived military coup.

Expressing concern over a recent statement by President Zardari that he would only accept the decision of parliament on the memo issue, Mr Sharif said: “This shows the government’s defiance of the judiciary; it is an expression of no-confidence in the judiciary and the commission investigating the memo.”

The Parliamentary Committee on National Security, headed by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, is separately investigating the memo scandal.

President Zardari, who is also Co-Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, had also said in an interview to a private TV channel that the government would never write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen cases against him and his wife late Benazir Bhutto. The Supreme Court verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) had asked the government to write the letter.

President Zardari He told the interviewer that his party believed that writing the letter to Swiss courts would amount to trying Benazir’s grave.

Mr Sharif advised the president not to link implementation of the NRO verdict to the grave of Benazir Bhutto. “If this is his (Mr Zardari) personal money then it is his will to write a letter to Swiss authorities or not, but if the money belongs to the public then it should be returned to Pakistan.”

Accompanied by a number of party leaders, Mr Sharif regretted that the parliamentary committee was far behind the Supreme Court as far as investigation into the memo issue was concerned. He claimed that the government had referred the matter to the committee only after he moved the apex court.

And as if expressing no-confidence in the parliamentary committee, Mr Sharif said his party was in minority in the committee, which had an overwhelming majority of the government and its allies. In fact, he said, the PML-N members were attending the committee’s meetings only on the insistence of its chairman, Raza Rabbani.

The PML-N chief parried a question about skipping by the army chief and ISI director general of the commission’s hearing. “Better put this question to them.”

Asked about the announcement by former president Pervez Musharraf that he would return to the country by the end of this month, he only said: “I am glad to hear that he is coming back.”

Mr Sharif said despite being the petitioner, he had come here to show his respect for the commission and the judiciary, vowing that he would appear before the commission whenever called by it.

The PML-N chief was not asked by the commission to make any statement. He only saw the proceedings while sitting at the centre of the courtroom, surrounded by lawyers and media. He said the government was facing a crisis-like situation because
of non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders.