Zardari will need several weeks to resume duties: Aide

Asif Ali Zardari, currently being treated for heart complications in Dubai, will need several weeks to be fit and resume his duties, one of his close aides said on, while acknowledging that "immense pressure" on the Pakistan President could be the reason for his condition.

Dismissing reports about the President suffering a stroke or facial paralysis, the aide said that Zardari had a mild heart attack and it would take weeks for him to recover.

"I can tell you with full assurance that the President had two stents inserted in his heart in 2005 and that he had a cardiac arrest, for which he has been taken care of well in the hospital in Dubai," the aide, who did not want to be identified, told PTI.

The aide further said: "The President will not be able to return to Pakistan shortly to resume his duties. You see even in a mild heart attack, it takes it a few weeks to recover." The aide said that "immense pressure" on the President could be the reason for his condition.

"Being a heart patient, the President was facing too much pressure. And eventually the pressure took its toll," the aide said, without specifying what kind of pressure Zardari was facing.

Zardari's abrupt departure for Dubai on December 6 to seek treatment for what officials said was a previously diagnosed cardiovascular condition sparked speculation that he could be on the verge of resigning due to growing pressure on him from the powerful military.

PPP leaders have denied reports that Zardari had suffered a minor stroke and that he would step down.

Punjab Governor Latif Khosa, a senior leader of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, told PTI that the President's condition is improving gradually and he would return soon. "The President had a heart problem but now his condition is out of danger," he said.

Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, the chief of PPP's Punjab chapter, dismissed conflicting reports about Zardari's health and said that had the President's health been in poor shape, his son Bilawal and others, including Prime Minister Yousuf

Raza Gilani, would have travelled to Dubai to inquire about his health.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar made it clear that Zardari would file a response to the Supreme Court on the alleged secret memo sent to the US military before the next hearing of the case on December 19.

He dismissed rumours that Zardari had played a trick to avoid pressure caused by the 'memogate' scandal. The memogate controversy has already cost former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, his job.

It was alleged that Haqqani instructed Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to write the memo seeking US help to prevent a possible military coup after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.

Haqqani has said he had nothing to do with the memo. The former envoy and his supporters have alleged the memo was a hoax cooked up by the military establishment to get rid of him and weaken Zardari's government.