Army to provide security to Mansoor Ijaz

Islamabad - A meeting of the Pakistan Army's top commanders has decided to provide security to Mansoor Ijaz, one of the central figures in the memo scandal, when he arrives here for submission in the case.

The corps commanders met Thursday amid a widening rift between the powerful armed forces and the civilian government. Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani chaired it.

It was held at the general headquarters and lasted for 10 hours, the daily Dawn reported. The principle staff officers also attended.

A three-member commission constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the case was scheduled to hear next on Jan 16.

The statements issued by the military and the government on the issue also came up for discussion at the meeting.

The day before, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had sacked his Defence Secretary Naeem Khalid Lodhi for "misconduct and unlawful steps he took" in the memo case.

Later, the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military's media arm, issued a statement warning the government of "serious ramifications" and "grievous consequences for the country".

Ijaz, who lives in the US, claims to have delivered a memo to the then US military chief Gen. Mike Mullen in May last year at the behest of Husain Haqqani, former ambassador to the US, and the Pakistani government to avert a likely military coup, kicking in a scandal that generated much heat in Pakistan.

The commission met in the first week of January and issued notices to Haqqani, Ijaz, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and General Kayani, among others, to appear before it.