Masood Sharif Khan Khattak: An Officer and a Gentleman.

He is Masood Sharif Khan Khattak, better known as Major Masood Sharif, director-general of the Intelligence Bureau in PM Benazir Bhutto’s second term. He has asked a significant question: if a public servant adequately met a challenge to the state by terrorists, and, risking his life, overcame the gruesome horror, and was then punished for it by dismissal from service, who will want to take up any future challenge to the state? To worst patch of terrorism that Pakistan has ever faced, says Masood Sharif, was in Karachi during 1984-95. Peace and the writ of Pakistan were finally restored in that city in 1995-96 through essentially an IB-spearheaded operation under his command. For the people of Karachi there is no need to repeat what they went through all these years. On August 14, 1996, President Leghari conferred the Hilal-i-Shujaat on Masood Sharif and on Saeed Khan, IGP, Shoaib Suddle, DIG Police, and Major General Muhammad Akram, DG Rangers. But what happened after the fall of the PPP government in November 1996? Leghari, on the advice of PM Nawaz Sharif, in an act unprecedented as well as contemptible, withdrew the awards from the three civilian officers but did not have the guts to do the same to the military general. Masood Sharif was held in Karachi jail for three years. No charges could even be drawn up against him, and was finally released on bail by the Supreme Court. In the process he was humiliated, insulted and tortured, his family literally thrown out of government accommodation, and he was dismissed from service without a trial. All because he was considered close to Benazir Bhutto. Asks Masood Sharif: “Where was the state that I had defended against terrorism when I and my family were meted out a treatment that was disgraceful and utterly humiliating? While I defended the state when it was vulnerable, the state did not defend me when my family and I were vulnerable and needed to be defended against vicious and vindictive people.” This was a sample, though a very cruel and base sample, of what an officer can face from the successors of a political regime which he tried to serve to the best of his ability. As a retired public servant, all that I can say is, “May the Almighty protect the services from such victimization.” REFERENCE: Victimized for loyalty By Hafizur Rahman April 10, 2002 Wednesday Muharram 26, 1423 http://archives.dawn.com/2002/04/10/op.htm#2

Masood Sharif Khan Khattak in Jawab Deyh (12 Oct 2008)

 

ISLAMABAD: Masood Sharif Khattak on Wednesday in his rejoinder to Senator Faisal Raza Abidi’s article said that he had thought that common sense would prevail but Faisal Raza Abidi had chosen to play the pawn in the hands of Rehman Malik. I am proud of the fact that I served one of the greatest political personalities of the country Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and I have never written any article that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had ever objected to even to the slightest extent. All my articles are in public domain. I write in the English language. I do not know which of my articles have been read by Raza Abidi as anti-PPP and anti-PPP leadership. These are the kind of lies that have been fed to the present PPP leadership by people like Raza Abidi and other political and professional pygmies around the present PPP leadership. These pygmies cannot survive in an environment, which has professionals and upright people in the corridors of power. Raza Abidi should put forth just one article that I have written, which is critical of the PPP and its leadership. Let me say that it was only the consideration of my past affiliations with the PPP that somehow kept me from writing critical articles regarding governmental performances and this cost me dearly in my credibility as a writer. I feel sorry for my friend Asif Ali Zardari that for sycophants and durbaris like Abidi etc he has to lose friends like many more even better people and me.


Masood Sharif Khan Khattak on UN Report on Benazir Bhutto (Mere Mutabiq 16 Apr 2010)

(Ex DG-IB & EX. CEC Member of PPP) Mr. Masood Sharif Khan Khattak on Benazir Bhutto's
Assassination

 URL: http://youtu.be/JB-Uso-5n2Y

Whizzing past his 80th milestone, men like Naseerullah Babar are a vanishing breed: a compost of truth mixed with seasoned intelligence gathering that connects the dots. When General (retd) Naseerullah Babar leaves the world as we all mortals must, unrevealed intelligence will perish with him. As one whose loyalties are locked in with the Bhutto family, this old PPP guard has watched his revered leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto hanged and his two sons murdered spawning 30 years of chilling intrigue and international espionage. He knows who killed them and the motive behind, but his lips are sealed. Now he worries for the daughter. Trying to pre-empt a violent end for Benazir Bhutto, he’s seen giving broad hints to whosoever asks: go look for the telltale signs that lead to her would-be assassins, he says. Given to television appearances, he speaks loud and clear unlike most mumblers whose words sound like ciphers. “She is a very brave girl who has lost her father and two brothers.” Babar is trying to reach her but she is unavailable for him, or was until the last time I spoke with the retired major general who now lives in Peshawar. “I tried contacting the Mohtarma but couldn’t get her, so I’ve sent a message through Farhatullah Babar,” says the man who served BB during her two terms as a special adviser and later her interior minister. If I were BB, I’d listen to the grand old man. He seeks no baksheesh or a job to jockey for. Unlike her tribe of corrupt pelf-seekers mining a fortune during her two terms, Naseerullah Babar is solid as a rock and unbending as the army baton that he always carries tucked under his arm.

Why did he leave Benazir Bhutto? “It’s a personal issue,” pat comes the general’s response. But we all know that Benazir’s deal with Musharraf was the breaking point. Babar could not bear the thought of his leader sitting with men like Aftab Khan Sherpao and Farooq Leghari after the way they stabbed her in the back. Whizzing past his 80th milestone, men like Babar are a vanishing breed. A compost of truth mixed with seasoned intelligence gathering that connects the dots. He takes a principled stand where the lily livered would capitulate. Such men need to be lionised. Sadly, Benazir has opted for Rehman Malik, the former FIA chief who reported to General Babar when the latter was the interior minister. Malik rose to dizzying heights from a lowly grade 13 or 14 officer. Stories of Malik trying to worm his way through by bribing his seniors are still fresh in our minds. Come promotion time, he’d turn up at their homes with trays laden with designer suits. By golly, it worked! Today, he’s Benazir’s confidant-in-chief and sticks close to her. The first face we saw after Benazir descended the airplane sporting baby pink tie and kerchief and waving to the crowds with a cheesy smile was Rehman Malik. Nor is Naseerullah Babar anything like Mustafa Khar, the unctuous fast-talking opportunist. “On July 5, 1977, Khar changed camps and went over to General Chisti for his reprieve while Mr Bhutto was arrested and taken to Murree,” remembers Babar.

“At my age it’s not appropriate to compromise with the military and seek a PPP ticket for the 2008 elections. But my loyalty to the PPP will remain grounded. It’s my national duty,” he tells me when I ask him whether he would like to serve BB again. Benazir showed respect when addressing her interior minister. She and the ‘General Sahib’ liked to engage in intellectual dialogue. Unlike other cabinet ministers, I never saw Babar cringe before his young prime minister. He was in the centre of investigations when Benazir’s two brothers were killed. “I went to South of France when Shahnawaz died in July 1985. I know exactly what happened and who killed him.” Why, then, has he not revealed the identity of Shahnawaz’s killers? “Because I was advised not to go beyond the drawn line,” he says. “The substance that killed Shahnawaz was used by very few countries.” The FBI and the French authorities investigated independently but kept their findings secret because of certain international sensitivities.” Was dictator Zia behind the act? Perhaps he wanted the Bhuttos wiped out altogether?

How ironical that 22 years down the road, ZAB’s daughter Benazir should wag a finger at ‘Zia’s remnants’ who tried killing her in the early hours of October 19! When Ejazul Haq was asked whether he was a suspect in the eyes of Benazir, he merely grinned (just the way his dad used to) and dismissed the allegation as a farce. Street lights once again are at the heart of murder and darkness. Remember the street lights in front of 70 Clifton were switched off when Murtaza Bhutto was ruthlessly gunned down? Who was the prime minster then? None other than his sister. Irony of ironies that today she should be talking of the street lights being turned off as the sun set on Drigh Road, now called Shahra-e-Faisal. Naseerullah Babar was the interior minister. “I know the people who had him bumped off. They dismissed the sister two weeks later because they wanted to seize power and heap all the blame on her for his death.” Was it the civil and military clique -- the ‘Zia remnants’ that Benazir Bhutto keeps drumming up? The current provincial home secretary is a retired brigadier. “He’s a tradesman, not a terrorism expert,” says Gen (retd) Babar. The MQM backed security adviser Wasim Akhtar also does not get Babar’s vote of confidence. “Every time there’s an attack, the government stonewalls it as a suicide attack and presents the nation with the head of the bomber,” says Babar. “The head is like massaging the story to throw everyone off the scent.” His patience with gauche intellectual weightlessness and conspiracy theories of our rulers is wearing thin. When General Asif Nawaz died, Nawaz Sharif got blamed for poisoning him to death. General Babar, who was in the government then, sent the hair samples of the deceased army chief to France and Russia. The final verdict: it was not poison but a heart attack that killed the handsome general. “I had the moral courage to tell the nation and absolve Nawaz Sharif of the crime,” says Babar. Today the blatherskites muddy the picture. “Unless our people get wiser and braver God will continue to give them cowardly leaders like the present lot.” Babar’s harshest barbs are reserved for General Musharraf which he has freely shared on national television.

“I have seen General Musharraf in ‘action’ during the 1965 and 1971 wars. I watched him from close quarters. To me he came across as a coward; corrupt; and a man of mediocre intelligence,” says Babar, the soldier who won the highest award in courage. During the 1965 war, Babar singlehandedly captured an entire Indian company of soldiers (over 70 POWs) and was awarded the Sitara-i-Jurat. In the 1971 war, he commanded an artillery brigade and fought like a tiger on the battlefield getting badly wounded. He was decorated with the Hilal-i-Jurat. The decorated war hero famously threw his awards at the military tribunal that sent ZAB to the gallows. Who can then blame Babar for voicing disappointment with Benazir kowtowing with Musharraf and his army today? “I’d rather go and play a game of golf, meet with my friends, attend family functions and go grocery shopping than walk in the corridors of power,” says the man who has not allowed age to interfere with his elan for life. His secret for a long healthy life? “I go to bed early and am an eternal optimist. We will come out of our current political crisis with flying colours!” Bravo! Encore! REFERENCE: Whodunnit? By Anjum Niaz October 28, 2007 http://archives.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/071028/dmag16.htm

Masood Sharif Khan Khattak on Operation Midnight Jackal (Jirga – 10th Sep 2009)

 



DAWN NEWS SPECIAL PROGRAM ON MEHRAN BANK SCANDAL (2008)

 

Masood Sharif responds to Senator Faisal Raza Abidi’s rejoinder Thursday, April 22, 2010 (The News International)

Faisal Raza Abidi please ask my friend Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan, if he had, or had not, sent Farooq H Naek, the incumbent Chairman Senate, to Islamabad to see me on my request when the president was himself still in the Karachi prisons while I had recently returned home after three years of imprisonment in Karachi Central Prison along with Mr Asif Ali Zardari. On the directions of Asif Ali Zardari, the incumbent President, Farooq H Naek one afternoon arrived at my house in Islamabad and I took him around in my car driving endlessly till as long as it took to play all the recordings of the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes. Raza Abidi should ask Farooq H Naek what I am saying is correct or not. I am sure Fraooq H Naek will tell him that it was in my car that these cassettes were first heard by him. Farooq H Naek immediately asked me to give him the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes and I told him that he should not bother because while these are with me they are just as if the same are with him but that I have to honour a commitment with the honourable man who has surfaced with these cassettes as his and his family’s life would be at risk if these cassettes were prematurely made public. I asked him to arrange so that the man could leave the country with another set of the infamous cassettes that he possessed while I hold the set that was in my custody as leverage. I am not aware of what arrangements Farooq H Naek and the PPP made for Rana Abdul Rahim to leave the country but he did end up in UK with the cassettes and the subsequent happenings are history and well known. At one stage Rana Abdul Rahim also asked me for the return of the cassettes that I had in my possession because he was frustrated at the way he was being handled by the people arranging for his visa etc. I refused to oblige him but did promise him, as one honourable man to another, that my set of cassettes will not be released till he has left the country with yet another set of the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes. Finally, he did get out of the country with the other set of cassettes. It was in my hospital room in Lahore after having returned to it from the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) after an open heart by-pass surgery that Rana Abdul Rahim, an IB officer, came to me saying that his conscience was bothering him a lot. He knew me from the time I was his DG IB. He thought that I was the safest man for him to confide with on the issue of the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes. He told me what the cassettes contained and that his conscience was bothering him a lot as he considered it most unjust for the then judge Malik Qayyum to be mixed up with government functionaries to convict someone like Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. I can vouch for this officer to be honourable apolitical man answering only to the call of his conscience. I encouraged him on such a tension-ridden project when the stitches on my chest after the open-heart by-pass surgery were still extremely painful. Yet, for my leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and my friend Asif Ali Zardari I involved myself in that project with Rana Abdul Rahim without caring for my personal health at that point of time. Are you listening Raza Abidi?

Rana Abdul Rahim is an extremely honest man. He is as honourable as honour can be described. The PPP and its leadership owe an eternal gratitude to Rana Abdul Rahim an officer of the IB. Let me say it in as clear and unambiguous words as it can be said that had it not been for the heroic answer to the call of conscience on the part of Rana Abdul Rahim of the IB the political landscape of Pakistan would have been very different. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari would most certainly have been convicted on the basis of a coordinated conspiracy on the part of the then executive and the then judge Malik Qayyum. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari would have been disqualified from active politics as all recourses to justice would have been exhausted after a Supreme Court conviction which did not happen only and only due to the surfacing of the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes which was a brave and honourable act on the part of Rana Abdul Rahim. The PPP would then have been in tatters and there would have been no need for any Musharraf-PPP negotiations. Above all the PPP would not have come back to power ever again after its top leadership had been convicted. The president owes his Presidency to Rana Abdul Rahim and the prime minister owes his prime ministership to Rana Abdul Rahim of the IB. The PPP owes everything it today has in the shape of political power over the destiny of the country and, in fact, the party itself being coherent and existent to this one great man called Rana Abdul Rahim. Instead, what actually happened with Rana Abdul Rahim, an IB officer, to whom the PPP and its leadership owes so much for having brought to surface the infamous Malik Qayyum cassettes is a very sad, pathetic and tragic commentary. Rana Abdul Rahim returned to Pakistan after long dreadful years of exile spent in an eastern European country. It was due to some influential person that he was forced to have an exile in eastern European country instead of UK so that this honorable man Rana Abdul Rahim is kept away from the leadership i.e. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto while he could claim laurels for the great favour that Rana Abdul Rahim had done to the PPP leadership and the party itself by saving the leadership from a 100 per cent guaranteed conviction being brought about through a conspiracy between the then executive and one corrupt judge namely Malik Qayyum. On return to Pakistan after the PPP had taken power in 2008 Rana Abdul Rahim went pillar to post and could manage only one or two brief meetings with the president who was kind to him but his orders were never followed in letter and spirit by some close to the president who had been ordered by the president to help rehabilitate Rana Abdul Rahim. This man to whom the PPP and its leadership really owed was refused recognition by president’s aide who would behave with him as if he had never met him before. Many a time when Rana Abdul Rahim has had to face the frustrations of mistreatment at the hands of president’s aide he called me on phone or in person and I always tried my best to give him comfort and the will to bear the indignity that he was being forced to bear at the hands of president’s aide. REFERENCE: Masood Sharif responds to Senator Faisal Raza Abidi’s rejoinder Thursday, April 22, 2010 http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=235447&Cat=2&dt=4/23/2010

Masood Sharif Khan Khattak on Karachi Situation (Kal Tak - Express News)

URL: http://youtu.be/5S3q_2pX3Y4

Even as I write this Rana Abdul Rahim is posted somewhere in Lahore against an assignment, which does not even carry a decent office premises or even a decent staff car and no one from the PPP hierarchy cares for him. While Rana Abdul Rahim and people like me who stand dismissed since 1997, without a reason, are politically victimized by the PPP itself there are these aliens, special specie from outer space, like Sheikh Riaz Ahmed for whom about 700 other criminals are released from jail in order to provide him the opportunity of riding out of jail and the person who get their dismissals turned into retirement to get all benefits. I do hope my friend the president will personally look into the sufferings of Rana Abdul Rahim and his family and ensure that he is adequately readjusted in life. As for me, under influence of his aide, the president has chosen to not even reply to my officially sent appeals against my dismissal from service – something that happened when I was with him in jail when I received my dismissal orders. It’s a pity that the PPP treats those who have stood by it with such scorn and disgust while it honours creepy and shady characters. Faisal Raza Abidi, please do not refer to presidential associate, who let our leader Shaheed Mohtarma Benzair Bhutto bleed to death while he ran away in the car that should have been used to evacuate her to hospital at that critical point of time, as someone loyal to the PPP and its leadership. For Heaven’s sake don’t do this. In the end let me ask Faisal Raza Abidi to abdicate from being the shield for someone else. I am a descendant of the great warrior poet Khushal Khan Khattak. I will take on whatever you have to say myself and not through anyone else like you do. Come forward and I hope the next statement in this series will be directly from you and not through Faisal Raza Abidi who I hope will chose to take the back seat. REFERENCE: Masood Sharif responds to Senator Faisal Raza Abidi’s rejoinder Thursday, April 22, 2010 http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=235447&Cat=2&dt=4/23/2010

Return of the Jackal - Part One

URL: http://youtu.be/kmoYgEvvUWE

Having known Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto since 1987 I am proud of the fact that this exceptionally outstanding leader had chosen me to be the Director General, Intelligence Bureau (DG IB) in her government. I thus worked under her direct command. The unbearably tragic assassination of a leader as brilliant, brave and incomparable as her brought an untimely end to a very vibrant and purposeful life devoted to an unending effort to bring about true democracy in Pakistan. One could write unendingly on Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s personal courage, political acumen and her love for the people of Pakistan. She knew she was being hunted by ruthless assassins. Yet, this great courageous leader held rallies all over the country. The assassins finally caught up with her in Rawalpindi. Her biggest tribute is that she lived with the masses, commanded their love and respect and died amongst them, bravely, with a smile on her face and hand waving at the cheering crowds. Seventeen days before Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s coldblooded assassination I had expressed some differences on political matters openly. Little did I then know that I will never see her again. It is this aspect that weighs heavy on me and makes me regret what I had done. The grim situation arising out of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination which saw Pakistan paralysed was handled by Asif Ali Zardari with dexterity and courage. The PPP was saved from likely fractures and was led through that turbulent period and the elections in such a manner that it emerged as the major party in the National and Sindh Assemblies. Zardari’s handling of the post-election scenario brought about a grand coalition with the PML-N and others at the centre and he even managed to bring the MQM back into mainstream politics. These were no ordinary achievements. Why the coalition broke after Musharraf’s resignation is too well known. Heartburning could have been buried after Asif Zardari apologised to Nawaz Sharif on TV and requested him to return to the coalition. Knowing each other from the sixties, I and Asif Ali Zardari were also imprisoned together in Karachi Central Jail for three long years. Prison days leave an indelible imprint. As director-general of the IB, I was arrested on the night between Nov. 5 and 6, 1996, in Lahore. Asif Ali Zardari was then at the Governor’s House in Lahore. He had my secret telephone number which had not been disconnected. He called me but got through to my wife who told him that I had been arrested an hour ago. After a short sojourn at Kot Lakhpat Jail I was shifted to Karachi Central Jail where I and Asif Ali Zardari then spent the next three years together. In late 1996, Asif and I were also locked up in the cold cells of a police station. We were subjected to days of brutal torture and interrogation. Who would have then known that this man lying on the cold floor of the police station would one day become president of Pakistan? Bravo Asif.

Open letter to Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto explaining resignation from the PPP December 10th, 2007 by Masood Sharif Khan Khattak http://www.sharifpost.com/2007/12/10/open-letter-to-mohtarma-benazir-bhutto-explaining-resignation-from-the-ppp/

Return of the Jackal - Part Two

URL: http://youtu.be/K7ws7Uxw1lo

Experiences like jail bring forth the real man in anyone. I admired the man I saw in Asif while in jail with him. He was a man full of courage and fight, and was never cowed by the many cases that were being instituted against him. With each new case he would be taken away for investigation (actually torture). He was stronger than the state that was bullying him, not knowing that he would one day head it as president. He was subjected to months of solitary confinement after which, on a court order, I was allowed to visit him in his cell and, thereafter, we used to spend the day together. After sunset I would return to be locked up in my own dreadful cell. I can never forget Asif’s concern for me all the time we were in jail. Asif helped many prisoners get a lawyer and helped numerous others in different ways. He was always a common man with the common prisoners and this ability to empathise with the downtrodden and to relate to them should now stand him in good stead. It is during these days that I gauged the extraordinary political acumen, courage, insight, understanding and fortitude that this much vilified man possessed. Today, Asif Ali Zardari will be taking oath as Pakistan’s indisputable constitutional president. I plead to all his detractors to bury the bogey of all the negative propaganda of the past two decades and judge him from now.

Return of the Jackal - Part Three

URL: http://youtu.be/m3WH9O_AcwA

The democratically-elected structure is now in position and should gear up to solve the country’s massive problems. These are challenging times. Only internal political stability and non-partisan national unity on issues affecting Pakistan’s security and integrity will be able to deliver solutions. It is now incumbent upon all political parties to strengthen the hands of the new president and I am confident that Pakistanis may well be in for a pleasant surprise. As a patriotic Pakistani and someone who has remained in the corridors of power, in a responsible position, I shall make a humble request to all political forces, in particular to Mian Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N, to rise above and give Asif Zardari a huge helping hand. To Mr Sharif, my humble request will also be that, notwithstanding the genuine grievances he may have, he give the coalition one more chance. The writer is a former DG of the Intelligence Bureau and served on the PPP’s Central Executive Committee. Email: masoodsharifkhan@hotmail.com REFERENCE: Judge Asif from today by By Masood Sharif Khan Khattak DATED Tuesday, September 09, 2008 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=134623&Cat=9&dt=9/9/2008

Maj Gen (R) Naseerullah Khan Babar "Exposed" General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg.

PESHAWAR - Veteran leader of Pakistan People’s Party and former Interior Minister Maj Gen (r) Naseerullah Khan Babar passed away due to protracted illness in Combined Military Hospital here on Monday. Maj Gen (r) Naseerullah Babar was a retired two star rank Major General in the Pakistan Army, and the former Interior Minister of Pakistan. His family is from the Babar tribe of Pakhtuns and hails from the village of Pirpai in district Nowshehra. Babar was a former Pakistan Army general, a former Inspector General Frontier Corps and a senior central leader of Pakistan People’s Party. He was born in 1928, in Ismail Khel near Akora Khattak, Nowshehra, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. He also remained Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 1975-1977 under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government and was Interior Minister in the second term of PPP government from 1993-1996. He was Special Assistant in Benazir Bhutto’s first government from 1988-1990. His early education was from Presentation Convent School during 1935 to 1939. From 1939 to 1941 he attended Burn Hall then located at Baramula and Sarinagar. The school was subsequently shifted to Abbottabad after partition. He also attended Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College in Dheradun and joined the Pakistan Army in 1948. He was from the first PMA long course which graduated in 1950. REFERENCE: Naseerullah Babar dies By: Nader Buneri | Published: January 11, 2011 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/11-Jan-2011/Naseerullah-Babar-dies

Mere Mutabiq with Shahid Masood 13 April 2008 - (1)

LONDON, July 19: The Karachi situation was discussed "threadbare" at a meeting in London on Tuesday night between the leader of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, Altaf Hussain, and his team and Gen Hameed Gul, former chief of the 1st. The five-point formula which Gen Gul had discussed with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, before coming to London for his meeting with Mr Hussain, had already been conveyed to the MQM leadership and considered by them. Mr Hussain is said to have assured the general, who said he had taken the initiative to break the present stalemate on his own, that the MQM had gone into the talks with the government with the attitude that it would lilce these to reach a positive conclusion. Mr Hussain, also complained among other things, about the propaganda campaign being carried out by the government and the official media suspecting disloyalty o Pakistan. It was suggested to him by Gen Gul that a "strong statement' from Mr Hussain in support of the Kashmir cause would go a long way in removing the wrong impression. Gen Gul told Dawn that Mr Hussain seemed to be of the opinion that he would go to "the last limit" to see the talks between Government and the MQM succeed. The MQM team feels that the 21-point charter of demands put forward by the government is nothing more than "a charge sheet". The MQM did not, during the three-hour long parleys, once raise the demand for a separate province for the Mohajirs. The formula brought by Gen Gul, which has been described by an observer, as "balanced", sets the rules of etiquette. The formula suggested holding of a dialogue to contain the rapidly deteriorating situation in Karachi which has "all the potential to degenerate into a wider and more menacing ethnic conflict". His suggestions included the initiation of dialogue in accordance with the laid down principles, between the concerned parties through mediators. The second proposal is for an end to agitation/resistance and the cleanup operation. Thirdly, the setting up of a neutral and authoritative administration for Karachi for interim period. Fourthly, the organisation of ad hoc (impartial) local councils to provide civic relief till local bodies elections are held. And lastly, holding of local bodies elections. Among the confidence-building measures suggested is cutting off the media campaign and hostile statements. It also calls for official efforts to recover the missing Ms Rais Fatima and government's word of syrnpathy and monetary relief for Ms Farzana Sultan. Relief for detained MQM senators is also suggested. Gen Gul's formula urged de escalation rather than escalation of demands as well as repression. It asked the parties to vow to help each other in exposing miscreants and violators after the settlement. The post-settlement actions suggested include general amnesty for emotionally charged crimes, trials for foreign agents and professional criminals and the establishment of a peace corps comprising well behaved youth to reduce overbearing presence of the police. The reaction from the MQM side to the talks is still awaited. REFERENCE: MQM in broad accord with Gul DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending:20 July, 1995 Issue:01/28 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/1995/20Jly95.html#mqmi 

General Hamid Gul supported Pervez Musharraf on 12 Oct 1999

URL: http://youtu.be/NhchrmX8SBU

Hamid Gul, a retired general, accuses Mr Sharif of having presided over an administration which had failed to deliver the goods. "Sharif turned out to be a great destroyer of national institutions," he told the BBC. "Look at what he did to the judiciary. "He stripped them of power, put a set of judges against the chief justice, did the same to the press. "He gagged the parliament and finally he wanted to do the same to the army." REFERENCE: World: South Asia Pakistan's coup: Why the army acted Wednesday, October 13, 1999 Published at 23:20 GMT 00:20 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/473297.stm 

ISLAMABAD: Former chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul on Saturday disclosed that the PPP could have got landslide victory in 1988 elections, if the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) had not been formed. Talking to a private TV channel, he said: ìYes, we had such reports and apprehension of massive PPP victory.î Gul said they feared that the PPP was returning to power after the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. I take the responsibility of forming the IJI, though it was not my idea,î Hameed Gul said. He said that even during Benazir Bhutto’s first visit to the ISI headquarters he told her about his role in forming the IJI. “We wanted the PPP opponents who had affiliation with the GHQ to unite them on one platform,” Gul said. He said ‘emergency’ was one of the options in 1988 after General Zia ul Haq’s plane crashed, but it was decided to go ahead with November 16 election despite request from opponents of the PPP to postpone it. He disclosed that even former Soviet Union sent a message to Pakistan that the 1988 elections could be sabotaged. Gul said: “This is for the first time I am disclosing that former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev sent his envoy with a message regarding apprehensions of sabotaging the 1988 election through foreign intervention.” He said he was not aware of the conditions to hand over power to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but said he was asked to brief her before she was handed over the power. “Benazir wanted a briefing from the Establishment so I was sent for this purpose and the meeting took place at her friend’s house in Karachi, which lasted over two hours, and I told her that the Afghan Jihad had not ended yet. There were two or three other things, which I briefed her and she said she understood the situation,” he said. He denied “Midnight Jackal” as intelligence plot and said it was Imtiaz’s personal plan. “No agency was involved but Imtiaz himself,” Gul said. The ex-ISI chief denied he ever sent a message to MQM chief Altaf Hussain to join IJI and rejected the allegation of former Intelligence Bureau director, Brig (retd) Imtiaz. “I never sent Imtiaz to Altaf with a message to join IJI but to express concern over allegations of collection of ìBhattaî by some elements,” he said. He predicted the victory of Afghans in Afghanistan and the US exit, but expressed concern over post-US Afghanistan situation and said a weak government was going to be set up there. “We failed to give up political system in Afghanistan after Soviet Union left and now I don’t see much will happen after the US exit, but Afghans will win,” he added. REFERENCE: Hameed Gul admits he formed IJI Sunday, August 30, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24196

Mere Mutabiq with Shahid Masood 13 April 2008 - (2)

In September of 1994 Kamran Khan of The News and The Washington Post came calling. He told me how earlier that year he had asked for an appointment with the then leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif, to interview him on his relationship with the army and the security services whilst he was prime minister. He was asked to go to Lahore and meet the Mian. When on May 16 Kamran arrived at Nawaz's Model Town house, there was an army of men equipped with bulldozers demolishing the security fences and structures Nawaz had built on adjoining land, not his to build upon (akin to those built around Karachi's Bilawal House). The breakers had been on the job since dawn. Kamran found Nawaz angry but composed. He was amply plied and refreshed with 'badaam-doodh' and Nawaz, his information wizard Mushahid Hussain and he settled down to talk and continued to do so until late afternoon when Kamran left to fly back to Karachi. REFERENCE: We never learn from history By Ardeshir Cowasjee dated 21 July 2002 Sunday 10 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1423 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htm 

Nawaz opened up by congratulating Kamran on his Mehrangate exposures which had recently appeared in the press, asking how the inquiry was progressing, and giving his own views. They exchanged information, each believing the other was being informed. They talked about how COAS Aslam Beg (sporter of shades in the shade) managed to get Rs 14 crore (140 million) from Yunis Habib, then of Habib Bank. This was deposited in the 'Survey Section 202' account of Military Intelligence (then headed by Major-General Javed Ashraf Kazi). From there Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan's election cellmates (General Rafaqat, Roedad Khan, Ijlal Hyder Zaidi, etc.), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account. After lunch, Nawaz brought up the subject of how Aslam Beg early in 1991 had sought a meeting with him (then prime minister) to which he brought Major-General Asad Durrani, chief of the ISI. They told him that funds for vital on-going covert operations (not identified by Nawaz) were drying up, how they had a foolproof plan to generate money by dealing in drugs. They asked for his permission to associate themselves with the drug trade, assuring him of full secrecy and no chance of any trail leading back to them. REFERENCE: We never learn from history By Ardeshir Cowasjee dated 21 July 2002 Sunday 10 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1423 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htm 

Nawaz remarked that on hearing this he felt the roof had caved in on him. He told them he could have nothing to do with such a plan and refused to give his approval. The Washington Post had just broken Kamran's story and when I asked why it had not broken earlier, he told me how they check and recheck, and that in the meantime, he had been busy with the Mehrangate affair on which, between May and August, he had filed seven stories. We must again ask: was Nawaz capable of saying what he did? Yes. Did Kamran invent the whole thing? Not likely. Is The Washington Post a responsible paper with credibility? Yes. Everybody who is anyone in Washington reads it over breakfast. Has it ever made mistakes? Yes. What is so earth-shattering about using drugs to make money? Drugs have been trafficked and used for covert operations for ages, by warlords, statesmen, chieftans and generals, used to gain territory, to buy or to harm the enemy. Remember how the staid Victorians of the British empire used opium to China's detriment. Remember the Americans and how they traded drugs in Vietnam, and the Iran-Contra affair. Can we believe Aslam Beg? Judging by his behaviour and record, no. Are we expected to believe Asad Durrani, a clever professional spook? Of course not. REFERENCE: We never learn from history By Ardeshir Cowasjee dated 21 July 2002 Sunday 10 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1423 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20020721.htm 

Kamran Khan's Dirty Role after Mir Murtaza Bhutto's Death in 1996.

"QUOTE"

PPP(SB) FILES LIST OF 22 WITNESSES KARACHI, Dec. 8, 1996:

Mr Sharif, arrested by the police in the same murder case, will be asked to produce the record of reports submitted by the bureau at Karachi, on the basis of which it sought permission for action against Mir Murtaza and his men. Another witness, secretary general of the PPP (SB), Rao Abdul Rashid, is also likely to establish the motive for and conspiracy to murder. Others cited in the same category of witnesses are: Ishaque Khakwani, and Dr Altaf Khwaja, deputy secretary general of the party; Kamran Khan, correspondent of The News; Ahsan-ul-Haq Bhatti and Abdullah Baloch, members of the central committee of the party' Dr.Zahid Hussain Jatoi, brother of the late Ashique Hussain Jatoi; Khalid Khan Dalmian, ex-MPA Rahim Bux Jamali; and Behram Khan Ujjan. REFERENCE: Murtaza Bhutto; Events after his murder by Sani Hussain Panhwar http://www.scribd.com/doc/8724391/Murtaza-Bhutto-Events-after-his-murder

On Saturday Dr Zahid Hussain Jatoi, elder brother of Ashiq Hussain Jatoi, Ehsanul Haq Bhatti, Rahim Bux Jamali and Abdullah Baloch would be summoned. On Sunday Behram Khan Ujjan and Dr Altaf Khawaja would be summoned, including Kamran Khan, a senior reporter of The News. Ishaq Khakwani and Rao Rashid would be summoned on Monday. About the appearance of Ghinwa Bhutto, the counsel emphatically said she would be appearing within the next few days and the date would be communicated to the tribunal shortly. REFERENCE: Murtaza Bhutto; Events after his murder by Sani Hussain Panhwar http://www.scribd.com/doc/8724391/Murtaza-Bhutto-Events-after-his-murder

Ms Bhutto said she was not aware where Nagib Zafar was on that fateful night and there was confusion as to who received the calls and from whom and where. The phone bills of 70-Clifton be also examined to "see the moving hand and moving shadow," she suggested and also expressed surprise at how could the press people receive the news at 9pm and who were those anonymous callers who were informing everybody about it. Benazir Bhutto also wanted to know who were those anonymous persons behind the shooting who also informed Rao Rashid, Ishaq Khakhwani, Kamran Khan (a journalist), and Masood Sharif, the then the DG of the Intelligence Bureau. They (anonymous callers), she maintained, had disseminated lies to distract the attention of the judges and the people through the cock-and-bull stories about Mr Zardari's moustaches and other of their's "Tota Kahanis" (parrot stories). "It was a hidden hand to kill a Bhutto to get a Bhutto and finish off the PPP, to incite hatred against me, the torch-bearer of the PPP and torch- bearer of the Bhutto legacy and finally to overthrow my government. The object was also to present us as shameless creatures," she said. REFERENCE: Murtaza Bhutto; Events after his murder by Sani Hussain Panhwar http://www.scribd.com/doc/8724391/Murtaza-Bhutto-Events-after-his-murder

They were asked to emulate the honest men. Kamran Khan, a correspondent of The News, appeared with a written request that he should be heard as a witness to reply to the statement made by the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to clear his name, to which the tribunal said it was not holding a defamation trial. The tribunal said it was not concerned with who had said what and that the former prime minister had named 50 people in her statement and there was no time to allow all those who had been named in her statement the opportunity to hear them. "We have limited time and by March 17 the report has to be submitted to the government and we will not allow you to examine Ms Benazir Bhutto and if we allow that there will be no end to it," the chairman observed. The chairman asked him to submit a written statement before March 17. He also observed that he (Kamran Khan) should have come forward earlier, when the messages were being sent to him. He was reminded by the tribunal that one of the reporters of The News, Maqbool Ahmed, was given the message to convey to him for his appearance when his name was mentioned in the list submitted by the PPP (SB) party counsel, Manzoor Bhutta. "You kept quiet when you knew about it through the newspapers. You did not wake up until she came and named you by saying 'if he could be used by me others can also use him.' "Kamran Khan said he did not know who Maqbool Ahmed was. He said Ms Bhutto had used the tribunal's platform to say things against him and, therefore, he wanted to reply to her from the same platform, to which the chairman said she had a locus standii, because her brother had been killed and her husband had been arrested in the case. REFERENCE: Murtaza Bhutto; Events after his murder by Sani Hussain Panhwar http://www.scribd.com/doc/8724391/Murtaza-Bhutto-Events-after-his-murder

"UNQUOTE"

”Quote”

As per Ghazali Book The Fourth Republic Chapter IX While the people speculated about the motives behind the killing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Dr. Mubashir Hasan, a former Finance Minister and a founder member of the PPP, was very blunt in his remarks: “For those who have removed Murtaza from our midst, the real problem has been and is Prime Minister Benazir. As long as Murtaza was alive, removing Benazir carried unacceptable risks. Murtaza could take over the mantle of the elder Bhutto’s legend. Else Murtaza and Benazir would be striving for a common cause, separately or jointly. That would have presented formidable political problems. Murtaza gone, the way is clear. Benazir stands perilously weakened. She is the next to go. Such are the brutal pathways of realpolitik.” [Dawn 25.9.1996.]” [For Further Reading UNHCR REPORT ON PAKISTAN OF 1996]

"UNQUOTE"

Kamran Khan [The Correspondent of The News International/Washington Post] was the one who met with Murtaza in Damascus (Syria) [at the behest of Brigadier (r) Imtiaz] several times and insist him to come back to Pakistan, Kamran used to fly to Syria every month at that time.

“QUOTE”

Former interior minister Naseerullah Babar paid glowing tributes to Shoaib Suddle for restoring peace in Karachi when in 1994 the Army was withdrawn from the metropolitan city. He said the ISI was involved in the murder of Murtaza Bhutto. He said he had formed a commission to probe against the ISI but pressure was mounted on him and afterwards the inquiry was givenup. He criticized the MQM decision to join forces with the opposition. He said the MQM should join the government for the sake of peace in Karachi. REFERENCE: ‘Bill to cut president down to size this week’ News Desk Monday, April 14, 2008 News Desk http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=14093

“UNQUOTE”

Mere Mutabiq with Shahid Masood 13 April 2008 - (3)

LAHORE, Aug 7: Politicians must start developing a consensus for providing a safe exit to Gen Pervez Musharraf when he will transfer power next year. This was stated by Gen Mirza Aslam Beg (retired), chief of Awami Qiadat Party, while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday. He said the parliament had approved 69 amendments to the Constitution, including Article 58-2(b), and ratified all acts of the martial law regime before President Ziaul Haq transferred power to the government headed by Muhammad Khan Junejo. Gen Musharraf would not be an exception, Mr Beg said. "He needs indemnity laws. An insurance policy before transferring power to civilians. It is up to the politicians to provide him with an escape route if they want a smooth transition," he said. Mr Beg predicted that the next set-up would suffer from inherent problem of pulls and pushes from different sides because not a single party was going to win next elections. This situation puts an added responsibility on politicians to develop some kind of agreement for running the country in the future, Mr Beg said, adding that the absence of such a consensus would make things difficult for the nation. About allegations of armymen meddling with polls to ensure election of "right candidates" and its possible resulting in the division of the army, he said: "The establishment's interference in the elections has always backfired. The same will happen this time. Look at Azhar Saeed Butt's case. He was virtually living with the 114 Brigade but lost elections. I don't think that a wishful thinking of getting "desirable candidate" elected works. Let the army play its hand and see the results for itself." REFERENCE: Provide safe exit to Musharraf: Beg Staff Reporter DAWN WIRE SERVICE Week Ending: 11 August, 2001 Issue : 07/32 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Dawn/2001/aug1101.html#prov

Gen (R) Naseerullah Babar on Mehran Bank Scandal, Musharraf & Nawaz Sharif

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng3FxFn_JAY

As per 1973 Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan


PART I

6. (1) Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.

(2) Any person aiding or abetting the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.

(3) [Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)] shall by law provide for the punishment of persons found guilty of high treason.

An accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense.

LAHORE: Former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg said on Friday the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was established as a political measure to counter the Sindhi nationalist movement following the hanging of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Talking to a private TV channel, Beg said the MQM did not exist before 1978 and was established on the directions of General Ziaul Haq, then military ruler, only to counter Sindhi nationalists who had lost Bhutto after Zia’s military coup. He said the caretaker government under Ghulam Ishaq Khan had decided to support the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) to counter the PPP in order to balance the political atmosphere. “I think the formation of the IJI was a right decision at the time,” he said. Beg said the IJI were the only means that could create a strong opposition at the time. He said former president Pervez Musharraf had created and supported the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the PML-Q to prolong his term in office, but no one had pointed that out. Beg said he believed the Bahawalpur plane crash that killed Gen Ziaul Haq was “sabotage”. REFERENCE: MQM was established to counter Sindhi nationalists: Beg Daily Times Monitor Saturday, September 05, 2009 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\05\story_5-9-2009_pg7_4 

General (R) Mirza Aslam Beg, MQM, MMA & Secret Cell of Jang Group! http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/12/general-r-mirza-aslam-baig-mqm-mma.html

Shafqat Mahmood

How Aslam Beg damaged a nation By Shafqat Mahmood Friday, September 04, 2009

The history of this much abused country is being churned to let the scum rise to the top. And what nuggets of filth are floating up -- military-made political parties, midnight jackals, cash for elections, Karachi operations, agency this and agency that. Is this the Pakistani version of a truth and reconciliation commission? The 'truth' being dished out has more slants than a right-angle triangle and it is certainly not leading to any reconciliation. The million-dollar question is where all these worms crawled out of? Have they rolled down the presidency, as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) alleges or have they emerged from the irritable bowel of an over-active nine zero?

Whoever has unleashed them has no care for the ascetic discipline of the holy month because they make for a juicy and spicy fare. It is easy to choke on Brigadier Billa because he is truly unsavoury. But let us admit to a secret vice; he has stories to tell. And stories are interesting even if they come from the mouth of someone you would ideally like to see begging for mercy, hanging upside down a pole The question of the month though is -- and it has been asked often enough -- let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I don't see a mad rush for the quarries and the reason is simple. The elite of this country has much to seek forgiveness for. We are all sinners literally and metaphorically.

The politicians top the list because they flaunt their sins publicly or maybe we scrutinise them more fearlessly. They are vulnerable because their passion for fame and fortune makes them impatient. It is not a pleasure they want to defer and end up becoming easy targets for manipulators. The Hameed Guls and the Billas of this world thrive in this milieu. They have guns and cash. While the politicians are more visible, their sins in the larger scheme of things are relatively innocent. They make money and are unprincipled but their impact on the nation is more through happenstance than design. The sins of some people in the military have been more sinister, more egregious and more damaging to the nation. It is they who need to be exposed.

In my reading of post-Zia history, there is no greater sinner than Aslam Beg. By his actions after Zia's death and indeed throughout his tenure of office, he caused great harm to this nation. He did not let democracy settle, manipulated parties and politicians and corrupted them, brought governments down, indeed did everything he possibly could to create circumstances for his ascent to power. He failed but in the process, he hurt us badly. It is easy to blame Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) because he had his share of sins but without Aslam Beg goading him on, much of what GIK did would not have happened. It was Beg who asked Hameed Gul to form the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and stop Benazir and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from coming to power. When he could not stop it, it was he who led the media and dirty-tricks campaign to undermine it and bring it down. Let us keep our biases aside for a minute, ladies and gentlemen. Whether we like Benazir Bhutto is not the issue here and more importantly, let us suspend our knowledge of what she did later. However, in 1988 she was not only the most popular leader in Pakistan but an international celebrity. She was an Aung San Suu Kyi like figure whose father had been murdered and who had suffered much hardship. There was not a hint of the taints that later followed her. If Beg and his cohorts had been patriots, they would not have formed the IJI to stop her. Afterwards when she still made it to power, they would have seen her as an asset to Pakistan. 

They should have gone to her and said "Madam, you are inexperienced but we will help you run the government. Your international image is a great plus for the country and we want you to repair the damage to our global reputation after Zia's draconian dictatorship." They did nothing of the sort. They started to sully her image and taint her reputation from day one. She indeed had her faults and made their task easier but she should have been guided. Instead, they launched operation midnight jackal, engineered a no-confidence move against her, got the MQM to take on the PPP in the streets of Karachi, thwarted the Pucca Qilla operation, which was leading to the capture of a huge cache arms stored by terrorists in Hyderabad, and then prevailed upon GIK to dismiss her government. This not only hurt Pakistan but derailed democracy. Had a single civilian government completed its tenure and transfer of power taken place through constitutionally scheduled elections, we would have been on our way. But Beg would not allow this. It was not without purpose. His plan was to first destroy the reputation of Benazir, bring her government down, and then do the same to Nawaz Sharif. Once all politicians had been damaged, he thought, his ascent to power would become easy. Consider this. After the Benazir government had been dismissed in 1990, he distributed money and did everything to make an IJI government come into power. Yet no sooner had Nawaz Sharif taken over, he was conspiring against him. I know this personally because I saw it happen before my eyes. Nawaz Sharif had taken over in perhaps October or November and by December, officers of military intelligence were making contact with the PPP to instigate it against the government. 

Not only that, Beg deliberately started to undermine Nawaz by taking a position different from that of the government during the First Gulf War. His agents, largely serving military officers but also some of his friends, principally one Lahore-based businessman, started to goad the PPP to take on the Nawaz Sharif government through street power. The purpose was to create enough trouble to make it possible for Beg to take over. Fortunately, for us, his time ran out and Ghulam Ishaq Khan trumped him by appointing a new army chief, two months before his term of office was to end. This was unprecedented and the only reason it was done was to make him a lame duck and thwart his ambition for power. 

Beg left with much regret but a legacy of bitterness was created that tainted the entire decade of the 90s. Democracy could not settle after that. Benazir and the PPP eventually managed to bring Nawaz Sharif down through Ghulam Ishaq Khan and PML N paid the compliment back by launching various movements during Benazir's second term in office. It then supported Farooq Leghari in the sacking of the second PPP government. This merry-go-round continued until Musharraf threw the whole lot out in 1999. End of democracy phase one. A new phase has started. What will this bring? Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com Source: The News International URL: http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=196480