But from the columns of Pakistan's most influential newspapers to conversations in the streets, the view is growing that Gen Pervez Musharraf's bungled effort to remove the country's top judge has left him seriously weakened and perhaps close to the exit.

"Musharraf says he saved Pakistan after 9/11, but I think he has failed," said Javed Arshad, a 26-year-old shopkeeper in Multan, a city in Punjab, the country's dominant province and a key battleground in upcoming elections. "Musharraf is on the way out.

"But Pakistan's top army commanders voiced full support for President Pervez Musharraf yesterday, a statement said, amid the biggest crisis of his eight-year military rule.

"The corps commanders and principal staff officers of the Pakistan Army affirmed to stand committed for the security of their country under the leadership and guidance of the President," the military statement said.

The general, who seized power in a bloodless 1999 coup, has presided over a period of sustained economic growth and relative stability unusual in Pakistan's turbulent 60-year history. He stands as a secular pragmatist seeking to restore good governance.

But his image has been battered since the March 9 suspension of the Supreme Court's chief judge for allegedly abusing the powers of his office. Opposition parties contended Musharraf really wanted to sideline the independent-minded judge before the elections.

The judge's removal touched off street protests against Musharraf's plans to stay in power, and the government's harsh reaction to the uproar has drawn charges of authoritarianism and predictions of escalating unrest.

Violence in Karachi on May 12 killed more than 40 people and left Musharraf fending off accusations that a pro-government political party was to blame for the worst of the bloodshed.