Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani arrived in Islamabad on Sunday and was set to meet President Asif Ali Zardari to explain his position on a controversial secret memorandum that was purportedly sent by the civilian government to ex-US military chief Mike Mullen.

Haqqani flew in to Islamabad on a flight via Qatar shortly after 2 am. The envoy left the airport without speaking to the waiting media and reportedly went straight to the presidency.

The Ambassador has been at the centre of what the media is referring to as the “Memogate” controversy since Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed last month that a secret memo delivered to Mullen, the then US military chief, in May had sought American assistance to prevent a possible military takeover.

Ijaz has claimed that he drafted the memo on the instructions of Haqqani.

The envoy, who offered to resign to help defuse the controversy, has said that he played no role in drafting or delivering the memo to Mullen.

Before leaving Washington, Haqqani told the Dawn newspaper that he would appear before a Pakistani parliamentary committee which would be headed by a religious scholar who was also a lawmaker.