Zardari returned to Pakistan from Dubai trip

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has returned to Pakistan from a trip to Dubai, his spokesman said on Friday, as speculation swirled over whether he would survive heightened tension between his civilian government and the country's powerful military.

"The president returned to Islamabad in the wee hours of Friday morning," the spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told Reuters.

A disputed memo allegedly from Zardari's government seeking US help in reining in the military has soured relations to their lowest point since a coup in 1999.

Military sources say that while they would like Zardari to go, it should be through constitutional means, not another of the coups that have marked half of Pakistan's almost 65 years of independence.

Zardari leaves for Dubai: Reported

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari left for Dubai on a scheduled one-day trip on Thursday, local television stations reported, amid growing tension over a memo seeking US help in preventing a coup by Pakistan's powerful military.

The unpopular president's trip comes during the worst tensions between Pakistan's civilian government and the military since a coup in 1999.

The army erupted in fury Wednesday over criticism from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani concerning a commission probing the "Memogate" scandal -- the bizarre and highly controversial case of an unsigned memo sent to the US military to seek its help in weakening Pakistan's military.

The memo has pitted the army against President Asif Ali Zardari's weak civilian administration, and the Supreme Court is now tasked with deciding if the government endorsed the note, and if so, if it can remain in power.

Pakistan army commanders meet rift between army and Government

Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani. His affadavit was described by the prime minister as unconsitutional and illegal.

Military spokesman Maj. Muhammad Ali Diyal declined to say what the talks at army headquarters were about, but the meeting is likely to fuel speculation about the army's next move in the country's political and legal crisis.


The confrontation between Pakistan's civilian government and its army has turned into a bitter open clash, with the military saying that remarks made by the prime minister had "potentially grievous consequences for the country".

The military and the government are at loggerheads over a scandal dubbed "memogate", in which the former ambassador to Washington is accused of making a "treacherous" written offer to the US to rein in Pakistan's military, in return for American support for the civilian government. The case, aimed squarely against President Asif Ali Zardari, is before the supreme court. It has appointed a judicial commission which began hearings this week.

The prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said this week that affidavits to the court by the army chief and the head of the military's spy agency were "unconstitutional and illegal".

The military responded on Wednesday with a highly unusual statement in which it said that "no allegation more serious" could be levelled against the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

"This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the country," the military said.

It is thought that the military is trying to remove Zardari and that his determination to hang on could end in another coup. There is speculation that, to pre-empt the move, the government could try to sack the army chief.

In their written testimonies to the court, Kayani and Pasha pressed the judges to investigate the allegations against the former US envoy, Husain Haqqani. The government has asked the court to drop the case and leave a parliamentary committee to investigate. The government was furious that the military's affidavits had not been cleared by it first, though technically they were filed through the government's attorney general.

In his affidavit, Pasha said that he had seen "enough corroborative material" to prove the allegations against the former Washington ambassador, who was forced to resign over the issue.

The military insisted in its statement that it had followed the book in responding to the court proceedings.

The government on Wednesday removed the retired general who was the top bureaucratic in the defence ministry and replaced him with a Pakistan Peoples Party loyalist.

The army has reportedly called a meeting of senior commanders for Thursday. The army has staged four coups in the past, with democracy restored in 2008 after the latest period of military rule.