It appears former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer will get a chance to speak publicly this week in Ottawa about allegations of improper lobbying, despite a last-minute move by the NDP to postpone his appearance before a special parliamentary committee.

Rahim Jaffer leaves the courthouse in Orangeville, Ont., on March 9. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

New Democrat MP Pat Martin had threatened Monday to withdraw his support of a Liberal motion. It called for the government operations and estimates committee to call several witnesses — including Jaffer and his wife, former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis — to answer questions about allegations of unregistered lobbying for access to a billion-dollar federal green infrastructure fund.

Martin was unable to submit a motion to the committee to postpone Jaffer's testimony during an in-camera meeting. He said he would attempt to submit on Wednesday — the day Jaffer and business partner Patrick Glémaud are slated to appear before the committee.

Martin, the sole NDP member of the operations committee, said his party has always had "reservations" as to whether the committee is the "appropriate place" to bring Jaffer and other witnesses to talk about alleged influence-peddling — which Martin labelled as "right up there with treason in terms of high crimes and misdemeanours."

He said Jaffer, as a seasoned former MP, knows all about parliamentary privilege.

"If the RCMP has an investigation underway regarding influence peddling by these people, I don't want anything at our committee at this time," Martin told reporters outside the House of Commons on Monday.

Glémaud said he and Jaffer are anxious to set the record straight about their environmental consulting firm, Green Power Generation, which he insisted has never lobbied any Conservative for any project.

"We want to get this thing over with," Glémaud told The Canadian Press.

Mounties 'evaluating' Guergis allegations

Neither the Prime Minister's Office nor any member of the Conservative government has released details about the allegations that led to Guergis's resignation from cabinet and expulsion from the Tory caucus earlier in April, except that they came from a "third party."

Helena Guergis responds to a question in the House of Commons in March. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he learned of unspecified allegations about Guergis's conduct and immediately referred the matter to the RCMP and the ethics commissioner.

The Mounties have only said they are "evaluating the allegations" and have made no decision on further action.

Martin also said he was concerned the hearings would turn into a circus, even though the questions were supposed to be all about the green fund. He noted the decision doesn't preclude bringing Guergis and Jaffer before the committee in the near future.

The NDP broke from the Liberals and Bloc Québécois during Monday's question period and focused their queries on veterans.

Opposition MPs have also asked the federal ethics and lobbying commissioners to investigate separate allegations that Guergis violated conflict-of-interest rules by promoting to local officials in her Ontario riding a waste management company that was reportedly about to be taken public by a Toronto businessman with links to her husband.

Jaffer was arrested in September 2009 for drunk driving and cocaine possession just hours after he dined with the businessman, Nazim Gillani, at a Toronto restaurant. In March, the former MP for the Alberta riding of Edmonton-Strathcona pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of careless driving and paid a $500 fine as part of a plea agreement that saw the more serious charges dropped.

The day after he dined with Jaffer, Gillani sent an email to clients boasting that "Mr. Jaffer has opened up the Prime Minister's Office to us."

Gillani has since said he was "over-enthusiastic" in his descriptions of his encounters with Jaffer and had exaggerated claims in an email to associates.

'Political snowball'

The latest development comes after a private investigator disclosed that he informed a Conservative Party lawyer about the alleged involvement of Guergis and her husband in Gillani's world.

The investigator, Derrick Snowdy, told CBC's Dave Seglins in the Bahamas over the weekend that he was investigating Gillani when the allegations arose of cocaine use and offshore tax evasion involving Jaffer and Guergis. He claims the businessman implied that he had potentially incriminating photographic evidence of the former power couple.

Snowdy, a card-carrying Conservative Party member, said he was concerned about the "optics" of Guergis and Jaffer associating with Gillani, adding that he never expected the "political snowball" that ensued.

Through her lawyer, Guergis has called the allegations against her "bizarre" and says she "looks forward to helping the RCMP demonstrate that they are completely false."

Gillani, who faces charges of fraud in an unrelated matter, also vehemently denies Snowdy's claims. He insists he has no incriminating photos of Guergis or Jaffer and feels his business "has been destroyed for things that never happened," according to his spokesman, Brian Kilgore.

Gillani "seriously doubts the accuracy of much of what Mr. Snowdy says," Kilgore told CBC News on Monday in response to Snowdy's allegations.

"Why would Mr. Gillani, having just met Mr. Snowdy, tell him all this stuff?" the spokesman said.

With files from The Canadian Press