- ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military supports the country's civilian government, the army spokesman said Saturday in an apparent response to leaked US diplomatic cables that show the country's top general had considered removing the president from power.
The memos released by WikiLeaks reveal serious concerns about the Pakistani government led by President Asif Ali Zardari. Weighed down by corruption allegations, Zardari has been hounded by the opposition, the media and the army, which remains the real power center in the US-allied nation.
This February, former US Ambassador Anne Patterson wrote in one cable that Pakistan’s civilian government “remains weak, ineffectual and corrupt. Domestic politics is dominated by uncertainty about the fate of President Zardari.”
In March 2009, during a period of political turmoil, Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told the ambassador that he “might, however reluctantly,” pressure Zardari to resign.
The president was reportedly feeling the pressure. In 2009, US Vice President Joe Biden told then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain that Zardari had told him Pakistan’s main spy chief and “Kayani will take me out.”
On Saturday, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military has a “demonstrated policy of supporting the political process within the confines of the constitution of Pakistan with respect to national leadership.” He said Kayani holds all national leaders in high esteem.
