Relations between Pakistan's armed forces and its elected politicians began sliding on 11 January after Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani dismissed a retired general recently appointed as Secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Gilani dismissed retired Lieutenant General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, who was the MoD's second highest-ranking official, after he testified before the Supreme Court without seeking prior clearance from the government. He was summoned by the court in connection with an investigation into 'memogate' - allegations that senior government officials wrote a memo to the US in May 2011 asking for help in dissuading the Pakistan Army from staging a coup. In a related development, the Pakistan Army issued a statement warning Gilani of "serious ramifications" after he criticised the army in an interview with China's People's Daily newspaper. Gilani was quoted as saying that General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of the army-run Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, had acted unlawfully when they submitted themselves to the Supreme Court's inquiry.
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