A History of the Pakistan Army by Brian Cloughley

Author:Brian Cloughley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carrel Books
Published: 2015-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1 One of whom was the then Lieutenant Colonel (later Lieutenant General and commander 1 Corps 2003–2005) Javed Alam Khan, who gave the presentation to Zia and the Americans about the tank trials. In his talk, Javed mentioned that the engine filters ceased to be effective after about 90 days of operation. He was surprised to see the president and the ambassador guffawing at his plain statement of fact, and wondered what could be so amusing. Later he was told that their laughter was caused by reference to ‘90 days’—the period in which Zia stated he would hold elections after his coup. An interesting insight to US policy of the day. Javed had wanted to go to Islamabad on the president’s aircraft, but there was no room for him because of Zia’s invitation to the US contingent to accompany him. Lucky Javed.

2 An excellent account of the crash is contained in On the Grand Trunk Road, by Steve Coll, Times Books, 1994. But a more stringent examination of the affair, agreed to be pursued by Coll and the author, was terminated by the former in the late 1990s. I am still wondering why.

3 In the past I had commented that ‘They never do,’ which, alas, was proved incorrect in the 2002 elections, when the MMA grouping of six religious parties achieved enough votes to govern in NWFP, which set development and social welfare in the province back by decades. They were, however, defeated comprehensively in later elections.

4 Gulf News, 7 March 1990.

5 The Globe (Pakistan) of May 2001 carried a remarkable interview with General Babar, which is well worth reading for its intriguing interpretation of events in this period: http://www.paksearch.com/globe/2001/may/babar.html.

6 ‘In 1995, a leading French military contractor, Dassault Aviation, agreed to pay Zardari and a Pakistani partner a $200 million commission for a $4 billion jet fighter deal that fell apart only when the Bhutto government was dismissed’ - John F Burns, New York Times, 9 January 1989. I have a copy of that edition of the NYT, given to me by Burns, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter. Its front page headline is ‘Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption.’ Inside, there are two pages under the banner ‘The Bhutto Millions: A Name That Stood For Democracy and Greed.’ Two entire pages of The New York Times were given to such pieces as ‘Powerful Clan in Pakistan Is Stained by a Vast Record of Corruption,’ and ‘A Pakistani Fortune Amassed From Graft Left Its Tracks Round the World.’ The paper’s libel lawyers went through his copy most thoroughly before publication.

7 Gul gave me a comprehensive and somewhat indiscreet briefing on 28 March 1989, when he was director general ISI.

8 My despatch at the time was headed Intelligence Change: Not a Kallue. Neither my attempt at humour nor detailed analysis were welcomed by those to whom they were directed.

9 The Islamic Democratic Alliance was not, in spite of its name, a religiously based grouping, although it included the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami, which left the coalition in May 1992.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.