Islamabad, December 18: The Pakistani civilian government has ruled out the possibility of a military coup after a court ruling plunged the nuclear-armed country into political turmoil.
On Friday, a spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed rumors of a coup in politically destabilized country.
“There is no coup,” said the president’s spokesman, Farhatullah Babar.
The coup rumors started after a government minister suspected of corruption was prevented from leaving the country.
Pakistan’s anti-corruption agency stopped Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar at Islamabad International Airport on his way to China for an official visit.
Nearly 250 other top officials are also barred from leaving the country as political turmoil deepens following a Supreme Court ruling.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court revoked an amnesty deal which shields President Asif Ali Zardari and many other government officials from prosecution.
The 2007 National Reconciliation Ordinance allowed Zardari and his wife Benazir Bhutto, a former Prime Minister, to return from self-exile without facing corruption charges.
The amnesty announced by Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf two years earlier covers some 8,000 Pakistanis facing various charges.
Revoking the amnesty could challenge the legality of Zardari’s presidency and raise corruption cases against some of his close associates.
Pakistan’s Dawn daily quoted analysts as saying that the military is coincidentally a prime beneficiary of the Supreme Court decision.
The civilian governments in Pakistan have a history of maintaining uneasy relations with the powerful military.
Pakistan has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 62-year history.
——-Agencies