President Pakistan Muslim League-Q and coalition partner of the federal government Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein has welcomed Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's statement that Pakistan Army would continue to support the democratic process and dismissed rumours of a military take-over.
He was talking to Business Recorder on telephone from Islamabad after his separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadar and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at Prime Minister's House on Friday. Shujaat's cousin brother Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, senior minister and Minister for Defence Production also attended these highest level meetings to discuss the present dangerous political situation.
Chaudhry Shujaat said that General Kayani's categorical statement would help foil defuse the ongoing tension between the State Institutions and silence conspiracies against the democratic government. He hoped that those hatching conspiracies against the democratic government would not succeed in their designs.
Sources close to Chaudhries accused the PML (N) leadership is conspiring to topple the government since by filing a petition in the Supreme Court for thorough investigation of the Memo-gate Scandal. It may be added that political temperature and tension between the PPP led coalition government and the Armed Forces had touched new heights after Prime Minister Gilani's accusations that conspiracies were being hatched to oust the elected government. PML Q sources said that during these meetings the Chaudhries advised the PPP leadership to avoid confrontation with the establishment and cool down their temperatures. Chaudhries who historically have had very close links with the establishment stressed that all the state institutions should work within the ambit of constitution for the sake of democracy and support each other for national integration and unity.