President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday rejected a call from within his ruling coalition to stay on as head of the army despite a pledge to step down by the end of the year.
The deal, sealed by a constitutional amendment, ended a stand-off with the opposition that had virtually paralysed parliament after October 2002 elections.
Several members of PPP (Patriot) met Musharraf on Monday and urged him not to stand down as army chief.
But Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Musharraf would stand by his promise.
"I am speaking on behalf of the president, who has said that he will stand by the 17th Amendment," Ahmed said, referring to a constitutional provision that binds Musharraf to quit either as president or army chief by the end of 2004.
"The president has categorically said...he will retain one office by the end of December 2004," Ahmed told a news conference.
Musharraf declined to comment in an interview with the BBC, first aired on Tuesday before Ahmed's briefing, when asked if there were circumstances in which he would not step down as head of the army as planned.
"I wouldn't like to comment on it at all," he said.
"But I am certainly cheesed off with the MMA's attitudes after the agreements that we had reached with them. They are not participating with us on my vote of confidence which they had promised and also on the National Security Council."
MMA parliamentarians have refused to support Musharraf both in a vote of confidence and in a vote creating the National Security Council.
The NSC, an advisory group to be headed by the president, is still awaiting approval by the upper house of parliament.
Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and other members of PPP (Patriot) met Musharraf on Monday and urged him not to stand down as army chief.
"Keeping in view the international situation, particularly the hunt against al Qaeda, we think he should continue as chief of army staff," Iqbal said.
Iqbal's stance has drawn strong criticism from the opposition. Ahmed quoted Musharraf as describing the debate as "unnecessary" and "unfortunate".
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