Investors in the Karachi Stock Exchange dumped shares, pulling the KSE-100 index down by 4.7 per cent to 13,265 at 2 pm (0900 GMT).

‘The stock market got off to a jittery start Monday morning in the wake of the deteriorating political crisis,’ a senior broker told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA by the phone.

He said it was one of the steepest dips in recent months.

The rumours of a mutiny and the ouster of Musharraf, who is also a general and head of the Army, were promptly denied by the military.

‘These are just baseless rumours,’ the military’s chief spokesman, Major General Waheed Arshad, told dpa. ‘The situation is normal, and President Musharraf is functioning as usual.’

Pakistan’s stock markets have been experiencing sporadic slumps since early this year because of political turmoil.

Musharraf on Saturday passed an executive order that partially suspended the country’s constitution, curtailed civil rights and replaced top members of the judiciary as it was close to deciding on the legality of his re-election last month.

The imposition of the state of emergency drew widespread criticism both on the national and international levels with demands for the restoration of constitutional rule and holding of free and fair elections scheduled for mid-January.