– File Photo

ISLAMABAD: After preferring some days of public silence over a high drama, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on Thursday he would set up a committee for what he said would be an impartial inquiry “at the highest level” into a controversial memo that led to the resignation of Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani two days ago and that parliament would be informed about the outcome.

But his assurances that he had asked Mr Haqqani to resign to remove any fear of the probe being influenced while the envoy remained in office and that the government wanted to satisfy the nation, the opposition and the house did not seem to satisfy a protesting Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), which walked out of the house after three highly critical speeches by opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in one sitting and a strongly worded response from a government minister.

“It will be an inquiry at the highest level,” the prime minister said and, while assuring the house that the government would countenance no compromise on national security, added that “the committee I am going to constitute” would be aimed “to satisfy the nation, the opposition and the house”.

For the previous three days of the week, both the opposition and the treasury benches avoided talking in the house about the memo critical of Pakistan’s military leadership that a Pakistani-American businessman claims to have sent last May to the then US military chief at the behest of Mr Haqqani even after the ambassador, who denies the charge, resigned on Tuesday.

The issue, strongly agitated by the opposition twice last week to which the prime minister responded with calls for patience until an asked-for explanation from the ambassador who was summoned for the purpose from Washington, was raised again on Thursday by Chaudhry Nisar, seeking a government explanation about Mr Haqqani’s resignation, which he said seemed to have come under military pressure and that the development reflected seriousness of the matter and ‘involvement’ of the ambassador.

He said his information was that Mr Haqqani wanted to return to the United States but had been stopped from such travel, before asking for answers to this and some other questions about the cause of the ambassador’s resignation after he and the government both had rejected the allegation of his involvement as false, the type of inquiry to be held, the way forward in the issue and reported remarks by Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar that the opposition leader said had “put the prime minister in the dock” by suggesting that anything affecting the ambassador could “go up to the prime minister”.

The prime minister, who responded to most questions posed by the opposition leader but ignored the one about the alleged travel ban on Mr Haqqani, reiterated doubts earlier voiced by government functionaries about the credibility of businessman Mansoor Ijaz, saying neither the ambassador nor the government would have felt the need to use a third person to convey a message to former US joint chiefs of staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and rejecting the talk of any military threat to the civilian government when he said “we are on the same page”.

And amidst cheers from the treasury benches, Mr Gilani assured the house that if his government ever felt any danger, “we will go to the people” rather than any other quarters.

The prime minister said he had asked Mr Haqqani to resign in view of the raging controversy about the memo and to avoid any talk of the inquiry being influenced by him.

He said the defence minister had explained to him that his remarks in the matter meant only that “if there is anything, the decision will be taken by the prime minister” rather than being any finger-pointing.

The chief whip of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Ahmed Shah engaged in the day’s second and angry tirade against the PML-N for its present stance and some of its conduct in the past after Chaudhry Nisar led his party members out of the house, but finally appealed to PML-N president Nawaz Sharif to “stop his party from once again raising the walls (of political acrimony) which had been broken”.

After a scheduled debate on the prevailing fertiliser shortage in the market and its high prices went by the board after Chaudhry Nisar declined to give promised details about alleged federal responsibility in the absence of Industries Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Minister of State Sardar Bahadur Khan Sihar quoted detailed figures saying there was no shortage of the commodity and rejected the opposition’s charges against his ministry for the crisis, which he said had actually been caused by ‘bad governance’ of the PML-N government in Punjab.