The comments from former Indian diplomats came on a day when the PPP-led government fired the Pakistani defence secretary. Retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi, an army loyalist, was dismissed for “gross misconduct and illegal action” over the memo scandal plaguing the country.

Former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra said Wednesday, “My advice to all Indians is to keep quiet.” Commenting on the developments, former Foreign Secretary Lalit Man Singh said, “What is unravelling is the growing difference Pakistan’s civilian government and army, with the courts playing a role.” Singh added that the consequences of the crisis are difficult to gauge.

Former deputy high commissioner to Pakistan, M K Bhadrakumar described the situation as a “slow-motion crisis” that reached a critical stage in the past two or three days. He said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s interview to the China’s People’s Daily on the memo issue — while the army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was in China — was a “deliberate act of provocation” that “undercut the authority of the army chief”. However, Bhadrakumar said he didn’t see the makings of an “imminent army coup”. He said the real battle was between the civilian government and the Pakistan’s judiciary.