Former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer says he has so far failed to appear before a Commons committee due to his wife's "high risk" pregnancy.

Jaffer said in a statement that he was unable to attend the committee hearing on Wednesday due to a medical appointment he had to attend with his wife, Helena Guergis, the embattled Simcoe-Grey MP who is currently sitting as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

"Today I was with my wife, as I should have been, when tests were conducted to ascertain the health of our baby. I am relieved to report that the test results were good and there are no significant concerns right now about the baby's health," Jaffer said in the statement.

"It did not help that she has been under considerable stress as a result of her treatment by the prime minister and others."

Jaffer, a former Edmonton-Strathcona MP, has been called to appear before the committee for a second time, as it probes allegations that Jaffer engaged in unregistered lobbying.

The government operations committee has suggested that Jaffer could be charged with contempt of Parliament if he does not appear before the committee.

"This has gone beyond disrespect to belligerence," said NDP MP Nathan Cullen. "The excuses of Mr. Jaffer have been exhausted. There is nowhere else for him to hide."

In a letter to the committee clerk, Jaffer admits he made mistakes in his initial appearance before the committee on April 21, which has left him feeling embarrassed and wanting to apologize.

"I inadvertently ended up providing incomplete information to the Committee about a couple of important things and I really regret that. It has embarrassed me. I apologize to the Committee," Jaffer said in his letter sent Tuesday.

He said the errors resulted from not giving himself enough time to prepare, which was something his lawyer had warned him about.

But Jaffer said he was "in a hurry to get to the Committee and to help my wife by explaining that we weren't doing anything wrong," which led to the errors.

Some of the clarifications include:

• Jaffer acknowledges that his wife "should not" have written a letter to promote a business in her riding if he still held ties to it. He said Guergis questioned him about his involvement with the business owned by Jim Wright, but Jaffer told her he had none. But Jaffer says he was not aware his business partner was still trying to drum up business with the company when he answered his wife's question about his involvement.
• After losing his seat in the House of Commons, Jaffer said his personal MP-issued BlackBerry was transferred to his wife's account, becoming one of four devices assigned "on her operating budget." Having a BlackBerry with her schedule on it allowed him to keep in touch with Guergis. During this time period he sent "thousands and thousands of emails" on his personal accounts, though he admits on a few occasions he may have sent or replied to emails on his government-issued device.
• Jaffer said he did not use his wife's office for his personal business, though he did use it briefly after "moving my files and other material out of my Parliament Hill office." He had his own office "for conducting business, had no need to do so at my wife's office, and did not use it for this purpose."

Through his lawyer, Frank Addario, Jaffer offered to appear before the committee later this week or next week, depending on the preference of its members.

But the committee insisted on holding to its preferred Wednesday date, which Addario protested in a separate email to committee clerk Mark-Olivier Girard.

"It is not clear to me why the Committee insists on separating Mr. Jaffer from his wife at a personal medical appointment," Addario said in the email sent last night.

The 38-year-old Jaffer previously appeared before the committee with his business partner, Patrick Glemaud. Their business, Green Power Generation Corp., promotes sustainable technologies and renewable energy products.

During that appearance, Jaffer told the committee that after losing his seat in the House of Commons during the last election, he never discussed his business in meetings he took with ministers, MPs and senators.

Report prompted questions about ex-MP

Jaffer has been in the hot seat ever since an April 8 report in the Toronto Star described a meeting he had with Toronto businessman Nazim Gillani and others last September.

On his way home from the September meeting, Jaffer was stopped by police and charged with cocaine possession and driving under the influence. Those charges were eventually dropped and Jaffer pleaded guilty to careless driving in an Ontario court earlier this year.

The morning after the meeting, Gillani sent out an email indicating that Jaffer had "opened up the Prime Minister's Office to us."

After the details of the meeting and the email were made public, the Prime Minister's Office denounced the "absurd" claims that Jaffer had any influence with the Conservative government.

The day after the Star report was published, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Guergis had resigned her position as a junior cabinet minister after "serious allegations" about her conduct were brought forward.

Harper said Guergis would sit outside the Conservative caucus while an investigation was completed. Without elaborating on the nature of the allegations, the prime minister said he had referred them to the ethics commissioner and to the RCMP.

The 41-year-old Guergis has steadfastly maintained her innocence and has fought to have the Conservative party publicly reveal the nature of the allegations brought against her.

With files from The Canadian Press