ISLAMABAD - A controversial Pakistani judicial investigation has found that the country's former ambassador to the U.S. did indeed write a letter to American officials requesting their help in reining in the powerful army last year, a lawyer and the state media said Tuesday. The finding could lead to treason charges against the envoy and add to pressures on President Asif Ali Zardari.

Ex-envoy Hussein Haqqani has denied any role in authoring the memo, and said in a statement the commission report was "political and one-sided." Many independent observers have also concluded that the probe was politicized.

He resigned from his post after the scandal broke, and currently resides in America.

The commission was investigating politically explosive allegations that Haqqani sought U.S. assistance last year in warding off an alleged army coup in the aftermath of the U.S raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The scandal pitted the weak civilian government against the army, and drew in other the feuding power brokers in Pakistan — the Supreme Court, the opposition and the media.

The letter dispute and other politically-driven clashes between Pakistani state institutions, as well as an increasingly hostile relationship with Washington, have intensified stains on the country's shaky elected government as it struggles against Islamist militancy and economic stagnation. Some analysts have predicted events could end in a destabilizing stalemate, conditions that in the past have led to coups and other military interventions.

The commission has called witnesses and sought to examine telephone records from Haqqani, who did not appear before the probe. Many other Pakistani observers have been skeptical of the investigation. Haqqani's chief accuser in the case was an American-Pakistani businessman with a history of making unsubstantiated allegations who once appeared in a music video featuring female naked mud wrestlers.

The commission read out its finding in the Supreme Court. Opposition lawmaker Khwaja Asif, who was present, said the probe concluded Haqqani tried to undermine Pakistan's constitution and was not "loyal to the state." The court ordered Haqqani, who was a close aide to Zardari and a member of his party, to appear before it after two weeks.

Retired Justice Nasira Javed said the commission was working on orders from the Supreme Court and said that criminal proceedings against Haqqani on treason charges could now begin.

Zardari himself could be threatened if any evidence surfaces showing he ordered, or knew of, the memo.

Supporters of Haqqani and the government accuse the Supreme Court and the army of working against Zardari and the political party he heads. His movement claims a long history of persecution by the army in Pakistan.

The release of the report findings came just hours before the Supreme Court was due to hear testimony from a billionaire property developer who claims that the son of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had received money from him, presumably to influence judges. The case is embarrassing for Chaudhry, and is widely seen as part of a campaign by supporters of Zardari's government to tarnish his image. Chaudhry recently convicted Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani, an ally of Zardari, for contempt of court for not opening corruption charges against the president.

News from © The Associated Press, 2012