ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government Monday denied rumors sweeping the country that the deputy army chief had placed President Pervez Musharraf under house arrest following the declaration of an emergency. "It's nonsense, sheer baseless rumor," Musharraf's spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP.
"It's a complete hoax, totally baseless and malicious. People will treat it with the total contempt it deserves," said deputy information minister Tariq Azeem. "The president has just administered an oath to the federal sharia (Islamic law) judge and before that he briefed foreign diplomats on the situation," Azeem added.
Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on Saturday citing spiralling militancy and a hostile judiciary, in a move that came as the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president.
Musharraf had tipped vice chief of army staff Ashfaq Kiyani to take over his military role after pledging to hang up his uniform before being sworn in for a second term. That step was expected by November 15, the end of his current term, but was pending the Supreme Court judgement on the whether his election victory was valid.