Asif Ali Zardari out?

Reports of a military coup swirled across Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after the country's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari quietly flew out to Dubai, ostensibly for treatment. His close aides spoke in different voices about his medical condition, intensifying speculation about his political future amid a series of crises that put him at loggerheads with the powerful military and undermined his authority.

A Foreign Policy magazine report had a day earlier quoted an unnamed former US official saying the 56-year-old leader was "incoherent" when he spoke with President Barack Obama over the weekend. The magazine said the US government was informed about a "minor heart attack" he had suffered on Monday night and that he may resign on account of ill health. "The noose was getting tighter-it was only a matter of time," the former official said, expressing growing concern in the US that Zardari may be on his way out.

Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar dismissed the report as "speculative, imaginary and untrue" and insisted the president was in Dubai for routine medical checks "for a pre-existing cardiovascular condition".