Threats to President's life in Pakistan: Interior Ministry doesn't subscribe to Prime Minister statement

The government maintains that President Asif Ali Zardari went Dubai for treatment due to threats to his life back in home, but rumours continued to make the rounds in Islamabad that 'there is something fishy going on.'
Some credible sources in Interior Ministry told this scribe that at present there was no serious life threat to the president and expressed surprise at Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's statement, which he gave in the Parliament that the President was being treated in Dubai due to security threats in Pakistan.
The US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland in a press briefing on Thursday said that the State Department was not aware of the statement of Prime Minister Gilani regarding threats to President Asif Ali Zardari's life. During his tenure as President, specific threats were received on two occasions, which were countered at early stage, the sources said.
Justifying President Zardari's abrupt departure to Dubai for treatment, Prime Minister Gilani referred to a plot by terrorists against the President when his father, late Hakim Ali Zardari, was under treatment in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in March this year.
Hakim Ali Zardari was admitted to Pims in March following multiple organ failure. He died in the hospital on May 24, 2011 at the age of 81. An attendant of Hakim Zardari, Dr Zulfiqar Ghauri, confirmed that police arrested some suspects from the premises of Pims when Hakim Ali Zardari was under treatment in the hospital. He said the condition of Hakim Zardari was so critical that he required 24-hour medical supervision and could not be shifted to the Presidency.
The president was advised not to visit PIMS by the law enforcing and intelligence agencies, sources said. These measures were taken after intelligence agencies received information on May 13 that a plot to assassinate Asif Ali Zardari had been hatched by al Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and he would be attacked during his visit to Pims.
The sources said that Islamabad police foiled the plot. This plot involved a 52-member squad. Several members of the squad have been arrested. Currently, they were being interrogated while the police was conducting raids to apprehend others, they added. The President's security was reviewed and inner-most security cordon was replaced following the January 4 assassination of Salman Taseer, which created fears that religious extremism had penetrated in the ranks of security forces in Pakistan.
An army unit, 111-Brigade, that has been instrumental in several military coups, is currently deployed at the Presidency for the security of Zardari, while police cops are guarding around the boundary walls of the palatial building in the heart of Islamabad. In addition, the president has engaged many private guards from Sindh for his personal security, which also reflects a lack of trust on official security arrangements, sources said. On several occasions, President Zardari was quoted as having said in the presence of US diplomats and officials that his life was in danger, sources said.