The conflict between the army and the government intensified this week after the Supreme Court began a hearing into the scandal, which has already forced Pakistan's ambassador to the US to resign and also threatens the president.

The political crisis comes as Pakistan is facing a violent Taleban insurgency, a failing economy and severe tension with its most important ally, the United States, over NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

"Conspiracies are being hatched to pack up the elected government," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said during a speech in Islamabad.

The prime minister did not specifically blame the military, but later in the day he made clear in a speech to Parliament that the army must operate under the control of the government.

"They have to be answerable to this Parliament," Gilani said. "They cannot be a state within a state."

Military sources meanwhile said the army is fed up with unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari and wants him out of office, but through legal means and without a repeat of the coups that are a hallmark of the country's 64 years of independence.

"Who isn't fed up with Zardari? It's not just the opposition and the man on the street but people within the government too," said one military source who asked not to be named.

"But there has to be a proper way. No action is being planned by the army. Even if we tried, it would be very unpopular and not just with the government and the opposition but most Pakistanis too."

The Pakistani military spokesman declined comment.