Pakistan's president has returned home from a trip to Dubai, amid growing tensions between Pakistan's civilian government and the military.

Pakistan officials say Asif Ali Zardari returned to Islamabad early Friday.

Authorities said Mr. Zardari made the one-day trip to the United Arab Emirates to attend a wedding. They said the trip was not linked to the current crisis in Pakistan.

The president's trip came as army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met with top commanders on Thursday. Officials said the senior military officers discussed the “prevailing situation.”

The crisis between the government and military stems from an unsigned memo that allegedly sought U.S. help to prevent a military coup in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Supreme Court is investigating the memo, which was allegedly sent by a Pakistani official to the U.S. military last year.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani fired Defense Secretary Naeem Khalid Lodhi for his role in submitting statements to the Supreme Court made by two top security officials.

Mr. Gilani also accused the two officials, army chief Kayani and Inter-Services Intelligence head Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, of acting unlawfully by making unilateral submissions to the Supreme Court inquiry.

Those remarks prompted Pakistan's military on Wednesday to warn of “grievous consequences” for the country.

A Supreme Court-appointed panel is investigating the origins of the unsigned memo, in which Pakistan's civilian government asked for U.S. help in reining in the Pakistani military, following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May.

The existence of the memo surfaced in October when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz accused the then-Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, of writing the memo. Haqqani denies he wrote the document and has since resigned.