As the scandalous memo delivered to the former US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen through General James Jones and Pakistani-American Mansoor Ijaz involves highly sensitive issues of Pakistans integrity and survival, the Supreme Court has ordered the constitution of an inquiry commission headed by Tariq Khosa, an ex-bureaucrat enjoying a reputation for impartiality and honesty and a clean record of service as Additional Director of the FIA. The nine-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was hearing, on Thursday, the various petitions, including the one filed by PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif, on memogate. Mian Sharif, in his petition, urged the court to take up the case so that the implied and express acts of those conniving and conspiring to destroy Pakistan can be thwarted. The memo was drafted by Mr Ijaz, allegedly at the instance of former Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, who he maintains, had told him that in asking him to pass it on to the Americans he was conveying the wishes of the Boss. The Supreme Court further ordered the President, the COAS and other officials involved in the case to file their version of events within 15 days as well as prohibiting Mr Haqqani to leave the country. Should he manage to slip out of the country, the responsibility would lie with the Interior and Foreign Ministries. Several experts are of the view that the government ought to have formed a judicial commission to make its findings credible in the eyes of the public rather than referring it to the parliamentary Committee on National Security, headed by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, whose findings would not be acceptable to a large section of the society. The memo implicates not only a PPP appointed Ambassador but also the party co-Chairman and President of the country Asif Ali Zardari, and a non-partisan body was required to probe into the matter to come to a conclusion. For that opposition leaders had called upon the government to constitute a judicial commission. The main thrust of the memo, written after the US clandestine raid at Abbottabad on May 2, was the request to the Americans to rein in the Pakistan Army and ISI for fear that they might act to wind up the democratic setup. While this was serious enough a charge against the countrys vital security organisations, what was even more troubling to the nation was the quid pro quo that was being offered to the US. It would make Pakistans nuclear programme more transparent and facilitate more than ever the American designs in the war on terror. Besides, it would change the national security team that would be pliable and cooperative with the US. Assigning investigation into a memo with such contents to a parliamentary committee whose impartiality is questionable amounts to brushing the issue under the rug.