Ex-US envoy: 'I was framed over memo'

Pakistan's former ambassador to the US has denied involvement in drafting a memo that accused the army of plotting a coup. He suggested on the first day of a judicial commission that he was being framed.

The scandal emerged in October when a businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, said a senior Pakistani diplomat tried to send a memo to the US Defence Department asking for help to rein in the military.

But Husain Haqqani said: "I had no role in creating, drafting and/or delivering the memorandum to the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen." And he added: "I was falsely accused by the media of and Mr Ijaz of being the person that communicated the memo."

Elements of the Pakistani media labelled Mr Haqqani a traitor. He returned to Pakistan in November and resigned as ambassador hoping to end the crisis, but petitions by opposition members to the Supreme Court led to the hearing. REUTERS