ISLAMABAD, May 29: Rumours that President Pervez Musharraf is on his way out took the country by storm on Thursday, severely affecting the public and commercial life.

Despite repeated denials from the quarters concerned the mill continued to churn out rumours of various kinds till they were quashed by President Musharraf himself in the night.

President Musharraf refuted the stories which were based on his Wednesday night’s three-hour meeting with Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, at a farewell dinner given to Gen (retd) Khalid Maqbool, the former governor of Punjab, at the Presidency.

At the dinner which was also attended by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the army chief, all the four provincial governors and federal ministers Syed Khursheed Shah and Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, the president put up a brave face and observed that the rumour had caused a huge loss to national economy.

The rumour first had its effect on the Karachi stock market which saw a 500-point fall during the first hour of the day.

People throughout the day kept on ringing newspapers offices asking different questions, including if Mr Musharraf was leaving for Turkey in the night, or has Mr Musharraf been arrested, or has the president resigned?

Reports of Senate chairman Mohammadmian Soomro having been asked to cut short his foreign tour further fuelled the speculations.

Mr Soomro, in Berlin to attend a Nato parliamentary session, was scheduled to return in the first week of June. However, there were reports that he had cut short his visit and was expected to return early Friday morning.

A section of media linked the otherwise a routine transfer of the Commander of 111 Brigade Asim Bajwa to a possible change at the top. Later, it was denied by an army spokesman who said the change was a ‘routine practice’.

The president, on the other hand, termed his meeting with the army chief a ‘routine one’, saying that he had already met Gen Kayani six times in recent weeks.

A spokesman for the Presidency quoted the president as saying: “The purpose of these rumours is to create unrest in the country and also give an impression that there are differences between the president and the army whereas that is not true.”

The president assured the prime minister of his fullest cooperation.

“I do not believe in confrontation, rather I believe in reconciliation approach,” said President Musharraf, who had also held a one-to-one meeting with the prime minister before the start of the dinner.

“The panic (created due to the rumours) need to be redressed,” said the president, adding: “Those who are spreading these rumours are not safeguarding interests of Pakistan because their irresponsible acts have caused a loss of billions of dollars to national economy.”

The president has been under immense pressure to step down, especially after PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari described him a “relic of the past”. However, the situation took a more serious turn when PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif adopted a tough line on Wednesday and said that instead of giving a safe passage to President Musharraf, they would like to try him on charges of sedition.