Asim Munir Rules Out Replacing Asif Ali Zardari As Next Pakistan President: Report

Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir has ruled out any change in the leadership, describing rumours about the removal of President Asif Ali Zardari as completely false and against both the government and the establishment, a media report said on Saturday.

In July, social media reports began to circulate that President Zardari may be asked to step down and that the army chief would take over the top office.

However, top government officials - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi - rejected such claims.

Suhail Warraich, a columnist for the Jang media group, claimed in an article published Saturday that the army chief had spoken to him in person on the matter during a recent meeting in Brussels.

Munir briefly stayed in Belgium on his return from last week's visit to the United States.

"The talk started with politics, especially on rumours that there is some effort to change the president of Pakistan as well as the prime minister. Field Marshal Munir clearly said, during both the Brussels gathering and in his two-hour discussion with me, that the rumours about a change were completely false," Warraich claimed in the column published in the Urdu daily Jang.

"There are elements behind this (rumour) who oppose both the government and the authorities and wish to create political anarchy," the army chief was quoted as saying.

The article claimed that Munir also outlined his ambitions in the Brussels gathering, saying that: "God has made me protector of the country. I do not desire any position other than that." "On a question about politics, he [Munir] said that political reconciliation is possible only if there is a sincere apology," the report read.

Although it was not clear who Munir was referring to, it can be inferred that he may have been referring to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and its incarcerated leader, Imran Khan. On foreign relations, Munir was said to have expressed confidence in maintaining equilibrium between the US and China. "We will not sacrifice one friend for the other," Munir was quoted as saying.

The army chief also described President Donald Trump's efforts for peace as "genuine", and said Pakistan had taken the lead in nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was then followed by other nations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)