ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz suspects that President Asif Ali Zardari’s coming address to parliament is a part of a ‘game plan’ to evade the Supreme Court’s notice to him to reply to the party’s petition regarding the memo controversy.

“If Asif Zardari has to clear his name, he has the forum of the Supreme Court to do that. A mere speech (in parliament) will not clear him,” said Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, at a hurriedly-called news conference on Sunday.

The Supreme Court issued notices to President Zardari and others on Thursday to reply within three weeks to the petition filed by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif about the controversial memo, allegedly sent by former ambassador Husain Haqqani to the former chairman of US joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, seeking Washington’s support for the civilian set-up, avert a possible military coup and in return, assuring revamping of the country’s security leadership.

The memo controversy has raised the political temperature in the country and political experts believe that the PML-N’s move to take the matter to the apex court can lead to a confrontation between the government and the Supreme Court.

Chaudhry Nisar had called the news conference mainly to reply to the allegations by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Chaudhry Nisar, who always claims to be a personal friend of the cricketer-turned-politician, challenged the facts and figures presented by Mr Khan at a news conference in Islamabad in which he also declared his assets.

The PML-N leader proposed to Mr Khan that a tribunal to be headed by a Supreme Court or high court judge should be set up to verify and probe the assets, not only of the Sharif brothers and Imran Khan, but of all the legislators.

The PML-N leader spent most of the time in Imran-bashing and spoke about the ongoing memo controversy and the Nov 26 Nato attack on Pakistani checkposts in passing.

Chaudhry Nisar welcomed Mr Khan’s appeal that the Supreme Court should hold an early hearing of Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan’s petition about alleged payments made by the Inter-Services Intelligence to politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, at the time of the formation of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) in the late 1980s.

The petition has been pending before the Supreme Court for over 10 years.

“We will welcome it. There is a need for a judicial review of the ISI’s political role,” he said while commenting on Mr Khan’s statement.