Hours after Pakistan President Asif Ali Zaradri suddenly returned home in the thick of brewing standoff over the memogate affair, the army sought to dispel impression that a telephonic conversation between him and its powerful chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had anything to do with the "some events" in last 72 hours.
"Some events of the last 72 hours are being attributed to the telephonic conversation between the President and COAS and the meeting between the Prime Minister and COAS held on December 16," said a brief statement issued by the military.
The abrupt statement by the army as the country's supreme court began hearing the controversial case with the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry expressed displeasure at the remarks of federal ministers on its handling of a case.
With the court going ahead with the case despite pleas by the government that a parliamentary committee was probing the affair, the apex court appeared to be headed for a confrontation with the government.
Media report say that a tense showdown may be in the offing between the powerful army and a besieged civilian government. The army statement which comes in this backdrop said, "The telephonic conversation between the President and COAS lasted approximately one minute in which he (Kayani) enquired about the health of the President.
"Hence, attributing anything more to this telephonic conversation is unfounded and unnecessary."
Reports in the Pakistani media had speculated that the meeting between Kayani and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, as well as the phone conversation between the army chief and the President, were in some way connected to efforts to defuse the crisis caused by the alleged memo that had sought US help to prevent a coup in Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.
On December 15, the army chief and the ISI chief had backed the Supreme Court's move to conduct a probe into the Memogate scandal.
On the other hand, the government asked the court to dismiss petitions seeking a probe into the matter, saying it had already ordered an investigation by a parliamentary panel.
It was against this backdrop that Gen Kayani and Prime Minister Gilani held a meeting on December 16. During the meeting, President Zardari - who was then in Dubai to receiving treatment for a heart condition called Gilani.
Zardari also spoke to Kayani at the time - the first contact between the two leaders since the President traveled to Dubai on December 6.
The 56-year-old President returned to Karachi early Monday morning from Dubai following heart treatment, hours before the apex court took up the Memogate case again.
The military statement noted that Gilani had spoken on the conversation between Zardari and Kayani. It quoted Gilani as saying: "During the meeting with the COAS on Friday night, I received a telephonic call from the President by chance. When I informed the President that I was having a meeting with the army chief, the President asked me to convey his regards to General Kayani.
"On this, the COAS showed his desire to speak to the President". The statement further said a "comprehensive" and "unambiguous" release had been issued by the Prime Minister'sHouse on the meeting between Kayani and Gilani.
In that statement, Gilani and Kayani had rejected the impression of a "standoff" between the army and the government on the Memogate scandal. Gilani had also said that he had taken "serious note of the rumours regarding a confrontation" over the issue of the alleged memo and that he "strongly rejected the notion".
Gilani and Kayani said the stand taken by the military in the apex court "should not be misconstrued as a standoff between the army and the government".
