as the establishment was said to have preferred Sharif as the country’s prime minister. Major Amir told his military lawyers “Nawaz Sharif was more acceptable to the Pakistan Army at that time than Benazir Bhutto.” He further said, “The military believes that in the current circumstances there is no option but to support Nawaz Sharif as we don’t have other viable option.”
However, while Amir (who the PM said today is the son of a renowned Islamic scholar) had claimed during his court martial that he was in fact acting on the specific directives of the DG ISI Shamsur Rehman Kallu to identify the black sheep within the ranks of the PPP, Imtiaz claimed that it was Hameed Gul who masterminded the removal of first Benazir Bhutto government. In an interview with the Geo TV on April 22, 2007, Major Amir had said that the Pakistani establishment likes the leaders who are not backed by the public. “The Pakistani establishment is against every leader who has people’s mandate behind them. The establishment likes leaders like Malik Meraj Khalid, Moeen Qureshi, Sardar Balakh Sher Khan Mazari and Shaukat Aziz. To a question, Amir conceded that he liked Nawaz Sharif as a political leader and was part of his political camp.
The former ISI officer said the ISI principally acts on the orders of the prime minister. But in case of lack of coordination between the prime minister and the army chief, he said, the ISI prefers to seek directives from the army chief. Amir then said that he had acted on the orders of the then ISI chief in the “Operation Midnight Jackal”, adding that the prime aim behind the act was not to remove the Benazir Bhutto’s government. “I was court-martialed and removed from the army service even though I had proved my innocence before the inquiry committee,” he added.
On his part, in an interview with Dunya TV on August 28, 2009, former DG IB Brig (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed said: “The Operation Midnight Jackal was launched to topple Benazir Bhutto’s government. The operation was not a big issue, but the politicians had politicised it in such a way that it became a major issue. He revealed that General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg, who was the army chief at the time, wanted to bring a change in the National Assembly through a no-confidence motion with the help of the Operation Midnight Jackal, as General Beg believed that Benazir Bhutto’s policies were contrary to those of the Pakistan Army.
Brig Imtiaz said that General Beg did not agree to PM Benazir Bhutto’s Afghan policy. The former DG IB said that after Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister, General Aslam Beg and the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had discussed at length the possibility of replacing her, adding that the operation was also launched for that reason. Brig Imtiaz said that his major mistake was his failure to refuse to obey General Aslam Beg’s orders. During a subsequent inquiry, he said, General (retd) Hameed Gul had advised him not to speak against the Army chief as that could raise questions about the institution of the army.