Gilani telephoned the top UK diplomat this week and expressed fears about a possible military coup.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoned the top British diplomat in the country this week expressing fears that the Pakistani army might be about to stage a coup, a British official and an official in Islamabad said Friday.
The call, which one official said was "panicky", suggests there was or perhaps still is a genuine fear at the highest level of the Pakistani government that army might carry out a coup or support possible moves by the Supreme Court to topple the civilian leadership.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani asked High Commissioner Adam Thomson for Britain to support his embattled government, according to the officials, who didn t give their names because of the sensitivity of the issue. It s unclear if the British government took any action.
However, the spokesperson of Prime Minister House, denied the report of foreign news agency.
A scandal that erupted late last year, which centered on an unsigned memo sent to Washington asking for its help in heading off a supposed coup following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has brought the army and civilian government into near-open confrontation.
While most analysts say army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has little appetite for a coup, they say the generals may be happy to allow the Supreme Court to dismiss the government by "constitutional means."
A Supreme Court commission is probing the memo affair, which in theory could lead to Zardari s ouster.
The court has also ordered the government to open corruption investigations into Zardari dating back years. The government has refused. Earlier this week, the court said it could dismiss Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani over the case. Judges are convening Monday for what could be a decisive session.
On Friday, a government-appointed commission investigating the unsolved murder of a journalist last year said that the ISI needed to be more "law-abiding." The report did not find enough evidence to name any perpetrators in the death of Saleem Shahzad, who was killed after he told friends he had been threatened by the ISI.
The commission called on the ISI to be made more accountable to the government through internal reviews and oversight by parliament. It said its interactions with reporters should be closely monitored.
0 comments:
Post a Comment