Thaindian News

Islamabad, Dec 23 (IANS) The army will support the democratic process in the country, assured army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as he dispelled speculations of a military takeover Friday, a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted that conspiracies were being hatched to oust the elected government.

General Kayani reiterated that the army has and will continue to support the democratic process in the country.

?The army is (aware) of its constitutional obligations and responsibilities,? an Inter Services Public Relation statement Friday quoted General Kayani as saying during his visit to the forward posts in Mohmand and Kurram Agencies Thursday.

“He (General Kayani) strongly dispelled the speculations of any military takeover and said that these are misleading and are being used as a bogey to divert the focus from the real issues. He emphasized that the issues of national security need to be considered on merit alone. He concluded by saying that irrespective of all other considerations, there can be no compromise on national security.”

The spectre of a clash between the army and the government haunted Pakistan after Gilani spoke out Thursday.

“There cannot be a state within a state. Nobody can say that he is not under the government,” Gilani said in the National Assembly, adding: “Conspiracies are being hatched to pack up an elected government.”

The army chief was visiting the area where two dozen Pakistani soldiers were killed in Nov 26 NATO airstrikes, an incident that sparked outrage in the country and led Islamabad to stop passage of NATO supplies to Afghanistan, boycott an international conference on Afghanistan’s future and order the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase that was used to launch drone attacks against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

General Kayani said: ?The men and women of Pakistan Army are performing their duty of defending Pakistan in accordance with the oath they took. They will continue to do so with the support and prayers of their countrymen, regardless of the cost.?

Speculations swirled in the country after Gilani Thursday stressed that “nobody is above the law” and all institutions in the country are “subservient to parliament”.

In the National Assembly, he reaffirmed the supremacy of parliament.

“Every institution of this country, including the ministry of defence, is under the prime minister of Pakistan,” Gilani said.

“If they say they are not under the ministry of defence, then we should get out of this slavery, then this parliament has no importance, this system has no importance, then you are not sovereign,” he added.

The defence ministry Wednesday admitted in the Supreme Court that it does not have operational control over the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

On Friday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said that no takeover would take place in the country. He said no institution would be allowed to cross constitutional limits, reported Online news agency.

?Reports about takeover are making rounds in the country. Martial law will never be allowed to be imposed in the country,” he said while presiding over a nine-member bench of Supreme Court (SC) during the course of hearing of a set of petitions over the Memo Issue.

The Supreme Court is hearing the case about a secret memo sent to Washington that claimed President Asif Ali Zardari feared a military coup following the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the Abbottabad garrison town by US commandos.

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz had revealed about the secret memo. It led to the resignation of Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani.