Bombshell or boomerang?
According to a story filed by John Ward Anderson and Kamran Khan of The Washington Post, former PM Mian Nawaz Sharif is alleged to have disclosed to the two WP correspondents that he had refused permission to the former COAS Gen (Retd) Aslam Beg and the former ISI Chief Lt Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani when they had come to him with a plan in 1991 to finance special covert operations by smuggling heroin. It has now been clarified by Kamran Khan that he had conducted the interview alone on May 16, 1994 at Mian Nawaz Sharif’s Lahore residence without John Ward Anderson, the South Asia Correspondent of The Washington Post based at Delhi. Incidentally John’s wife Ms Molly Moore, happens to be the South Asian Bureau Chief in Delhi of The Washington Post and also visits Pakistan often. Given India’s record of not extending the visas of media persons who are critical of India in any manner, the couple is believed to be well wired into the Indian establishment, as would be necessary for their success in the country that they are based in. Both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mushahid Hussain (who sat in during the interview) have vehemently denied that any such disclosure was made. On the other hand, both The Washington Post and Kamran Khan have stood by their story, WP even threatening to sue Mian Nawaz Sharif for defamation (in a reversal of media-victim roles) and Kamran Khan inviting Mian Nawaz Sharif to take him to court. The purported charges, which are ridiculous and absurd, have been denied by the Army but momentarily it put Mian Sahib in the hot seat in an adversarial role to the Army, to the barely concealed glee of the Ms Bhutto regime.
From Washington Mr Khalid Hasan writes that a Spokesperson of The Washington Post was extremely curt and short in standing by its sensational news item. Very rightly Khalid Hasan has contended that a newspaper of the status of The WP would not carry such a story without the backing of incontrovertible evidence. The inordinate 5 months delay in printing the story is attributed by the prestigious newspaper to the verifying of the facts before putting it into print. The question of veracity is important because apart from the propriety and the authenticity of the purported disclosure by Mian Nawaz Sharif, the allegations tend to defame not only two former senior officers of the Army but by extension the Pakistan Army itself. It stands to reason that The Washington Post (through Kamran Khan) would have immediately contacted both Gen (Retd) Aslam Beg and Lt Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani soon after the said May 16 interview to obtain their reactions to the purported assertions of Mian Nawaz Sharif. It now transpires that John Ward Anderson rang up Gen (Retd) Aslam Beg only a week ago from Delhi to confirm the story filed by Kamran Khan five months ago. It is safe to presume that Asad Durrani must have also simultaneously denied the so-called allegations. The denial of these two gentlemen have not yet been carried by The WP but have now appeared in the Pakistani Press. The burden of proving the facts shifts to Kamran Khan as it his word against Mian Nawaz Sharif’s and Mushahid Hussain’s. Since ostensibly Kamran Khan was not carrying a tape recorder, then the recording must have been carried out surreptitiously.
While the gap of five months remains inexplicable, the timing of the story coincides with Nawaz Sharif’s “Train March” and only the present GoP had to gain by putting Mian Nawaz Sharif on the defensive as the former PM scrambled to deny that he had ever made any such allegations. One remembers how the Gen Asif Nawaz “poisoning” issue had surfaced at a particularly critical period in the same manner and then died a natural death as did the late COAS once the election process was over. Coincidentally the timing of both these events has put Mian Nawaz Sharif under pressure whenever he seems to be on a political roll and the present government somewhat beleaguered. Ultimately the issue may well rest on whether Kamran has a credible tape recording of the alleged interview. If he does have such evidence it will be a tremendous blow to Mian Nawaz Sharif’s political career as no political leader in Pakistan can make such allegations against the Pakistan Armed Forces and get away with it. On the other hand, another scenario suggests that the present GoP, having the President’s chair and the judiciary well in hand, may have attempted to put the Army, which has been displaying some signs of restlessness at the muck flying about and the rapid deterioration of the national fabric, on the defensive and firmly in its place (sic Gen Babar). But would the present government go so far (for its own particular purposes) as to malign (and thus compromise) the last institution capable of defending the nation’s integrity and independence?
Kamran Khan has an excellent and impeccable reputation, one hopes he heard it wrong because it is also unimaginable that Mian Nawaz Sharif (or for that matter Ms Benazir) would be so childish and immature as to deliberately malign the Army. Kamran is a friend and it would be a tragedy if he is being used as an inadvertent tool by elements that are either hostile to Pakistan or are furthering their own individual ambitions. A shadow of doubt of “a two birds with one stone” ploy does exist, with the Armed Forces as the real target to be displayed as a “rogue organization” (first terrorism and now drugs, a la Noriega) to the whole world. While one daresays that conceptually the scheme was indeed brilliant, it may well boomerang onto another innocent party, the Ms Bhutto regime. GoP must be very careful with this sensitive issue as in the cold light of day it seems to be a “dirty trick” effort that deliberately targets the Pakistan Army. While using Mian Nawaz Sharif as an expendable whipping boy, the greater damage is meant to the fair reputation of the Army. This sort of vicious campaign against the Army is not new, recently General Joshi, COAS Indian Army, has been alleging that the Pakistan Army was involved in the killing of Indian Army personnel in Somalia (since denied by the UN Secretary General, Mr Boutros Ghali, himself). Many people will not be surprised to know that the Anderson family and General Joshi do not live too far apart in Delhi. That is circumstantial evidence at best, about as much as The Washington Post story without the support of an incriminating and authentic audio-cassette, not much distinct from late Gen Asif Nawaz’s hair sample that caused such furore last year. After all it was only 15 months or so ago that Mian Nawaz Sharif was being blamed for the supposed “poisoning” of the late COAS, a dastardly canard since unproven by scientific evidence but with no explanation as to who created the falsehood in the first place.
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