Pakistan PM 'told UK of coup fear'
Pakistan’s prime minister telephoned the top British diplomat in the country, expressing fears that the army might be about to stage a coup, reports say.
Yousuf Reza Gilani this week asked High Commissioner Adam Thomson for Britain to support his embattled government, an official in Islamabad and a British official told the Associated Press.
It is unclear if the British government took any action.
Tensions between Pakistan’s army and government have soared in recent days, leading to speculation that the army might stage a coup or support possible moves by the Supreme Court to oust the government.
Earlier today Pakistan’s president returned from Dubai and his spokesman said he was not worried about the political crisis.
President Asif Ali Zardari went to Dubai yesterday for a one-day personal trip.
He travelled last month to Dubai for medical reasons, triggering widely reported rumours he was on the verge of resigning.
The call, which one official said was “panicky”, suggests there was 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.
Such is the weakness of state institutions, Pakistani leaders have often looked to foreign powers, especially the United States and Gulf countries, to intervene in domestic affairs, mediate disputes between feuding power centres or “guarantee” agreements between them.
The army, which has staged four coups in Pakistan’s history, has never liked the civilian government headed by Gilani and President Zardari.
But a scandal that erupted late last year, which centred on an unsigned memo sent to Washington asking for its help in heading off a supposed coup following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has brought the army and civilian government into near-open confrontation.
While most analysts say army chief General 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 removal.
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 Gilani over the case. Judges are convening on Monday for what could be a decisive session.
The nuclear-armed country is facing a host of problems, among them near economic collapse and a virulent al Qaida- and Taliban-led insurgency.
The fight against the militants has been complicated by allegations that the country’s main Inter-Services Intelligence is supporting some of the insurgents.
Today, 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.
Also today, militants attacked a police station in the north-western city of Peshawar, shooting dead three officers and wounding nine others.
