October 12: General Musharraf's journey from landing at Karachi airport to his dear compatriots

 

The events, which kept the viewer's nerves constantly tense like a thriller, began with a special television news bulletin at 5 p.m. At 1:40 pm, the film reached its climax when General Pervez Musharraf appeared in front of the camera. At the time, he appeared to be suffering from severe nervous tension, so the camera was turned off and he was offered juice and advised to rest for a while. These are the events of October 12, 1999, when Pakistan suddenly came to a crossroads when, for the first time in history, power was not in the hands of an Army Chief, nor of the Rawalpindi Corps and its Triple One Brigade, which always used such opportunities. Lay the foundation of a new era.

This time, Turp's address was in the hands of the Karachi Corps and its commander, Lieutenant General Muzaffar Usmani, who could have added a new chapter to Pakistan's history if he had wanted to.

When Pakistan Television broadcast the news that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had retired Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf and handed over the post to General Zia-ud-Din, it spread across the people of Pakistan and especially across the country. There was a wave of excitement in many military barracks and senior military officers kept in touch with each other as to what to do next. There are a few telephone calls made on this occasion which have played an important role in clarifying the situation. This time, Turp's address was in the hands of Karachi Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, who could have added a new chapter to Pakistan's history if he wanted to. Brigadier Tariq Sohail informed Corps Commander General Usmani who informed his boss about the change in command of the army. Brigadier Tariq received this information from television. General Osmani received a second phone call from the Prime Minister's House informing him that the Prime Minister was very concerned about the health of his ailing son and that he could be sent abroad for treatment if he wished.The third phone call to General Usmani was made by the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Mahmood, and he was asked what to do next. The conversation between the two Armed Forces officials was brief but clear, leaving no ambiguity in anyone's mind as to what to do next. During the phone call, General Usmani asked General Mahmood: Did General Musharraf give any instructions about such a situation? The dialogue between General Osmani and General Mahmoud dispels the impression that the army was not ready to take power. Several statements of General Musharraf in this regard are also on record. He has said something similar in his book "Pakistan First" but in the same book he has also written that General Aziz knew what he had to do. What General Shahid Aziz had to do, he has described in his book 'How far is this silence' and has written that the whole plan was prepared very carefully, the details of which are also in the laptops of reliable generals. Were present The fourth phone call to General Osmani was made shortly after by the Prime Minister-designated Chief of Army Staff, General Zia-ud-Din, who, after informing him of his appointment and the new changes, instructed him to go to the airport and meet General Musharraf. Welcome and take them to the Army House with full respect. The phone must have been switched off when the phone rang again, this time on the other side was Brigadier Javed Iqbal, the military secretary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. His message was brief and clear that there was no need to give protocol to General Pervez Musharraf and that he should be imprisoned in the Army House. From the above contacts, it became clear that whatever is to happen in the next few hours, General Osmani's role is key, but at the same time, General Osmani himself in the midst of conflicting information, instructions, and wishes. What is going on in your mind at the moment? It is not mentioned in the book, but the short sentence he said to General Mahmood helps him to understand, that is, "General Musharraf's instructions will be carried out." But it seems so. Unlike Karachi, the minds of the people in Rawalpindi were not yet clear, especially those of General Mahmood who was waiting for General Musharraf to land in Karachi and decide his fate. This may be the reason why when General Usmani asked General Mahmood what steps he had taken, he replied in the negative, but when he became convinced that General Usmani was full with General Musharraf and moved on. When I came, they also became active. General Zia-ud-Din Butt called General Muzaffar Usmani and instructed him to go to the airport to receive General Musharraf and take him to the Army House with full respect. General Osmani reached the airport during the communication between Rawalpindi and Karachi. IG Sindh Rana Maqbool and Deputy Inspector General of Police Akbar Arain were already there and had a conversation. "We should take control of the airport," the IG instructed his deputy. "I think it is appropriate." "No, because the troops are here, there is a risk of a clash during the operation," the DIG advised.

As soon as General Osmani heard this conversation, he quietly left. This may have meant that senior police officials were under the impression that a large number of troops were present, when in fact the opposite was true. Meanwhile, he contacted General Officer Commanding Major General Iftikhar on phone and directed him to reach the airport along with the troops as soon as possible. General Osmani had also contacted him once on the way to the airport and instructed him to do so, but he had not yet arrived here. General Ottoman spoke to General Iftikhar and immediately reached the air traffic control. Meanwhile, General Iftikhar also reached there. Air Traffic Controller Yousuf Abbas told General Iftikhar that he had been directed to divert the plane to Nawabshah. General Iftikhar pulled out his pistol and placed it around his neck and ordered him to talk to the pilot. General Iftikhar's staff officer informed General Usmani about Nawabshah. He contacted Nawabshah and instructed the concerned unit to reach there, but the distance between the troops stationed there and the airport was too great. It was not possible to arrive on time as a large contingent of police was present at Nawabshah Airport who were instructed to arrest Pervez Musharraf as soon as the plane landed. An urgent decision was needed in this state of emergency as the arrest of General Musharraf was certain when the plane reached Nawabshah, so he directed the plane to turn towards Karachi. In the meantime, he called General Musharraf in the cockpit and informed him of the situation and assured him that the situation was under control. General Musharraf and General Iftikhar had an old domestic relationship, so they found out the names of their dogs from General Iftikhar and reassured him that they were not being deceived, so the plane landed safely in Karachi. When the plane landed, it was General Musharraf who came out first. General Osmani and two or three other armed officers saluted and welcomed him, but General Musharraf was still not confident. After some thought, he asked General Osmani if ​​his wife was also on the plane. Can she get off the plane? General Osmani's answer was in the affirmative. He then instructed his staff officer, Major Zafar, to get Begum Sahiba off the plane. Meanwhile, he took General Musharraf to the VIP lounge where he immediately went to the washroom to freshen up. As soon as General Musharraf came out refreshed, a smile spread on General Usmani's face and he said: "I have been instructed to arrest you." Hearing this, General Musharraf's face became troubled. Sensing their distress, General Usmani immediately reassured them: 'Don't worry sir! The situation is under control. ”He then brought them out and put them in his car, waving the flag of the Chief of Army Staff over the car. Was

By the time he reached the corps headquarters, General Pervez Musharraf had made many decisions in his mind, so as soon as he reached there, he directed that arrangements be made to broadcast his address. To this end, the search for the local ISPR leadership, Colonel Ashfaq Hussain, began. For the first few hours, he tried to contact the ISPR Central Command in Rawalpindi after failing to contact him for instructions. When they reached the Corps Commander's Office via the flagship Staff House and the Army House, they learned that a speech was being written, so they made arrangements to broadcast it.

When he directed PTV to send a recording team to the corps headquarters, Director Current Affairs Athar Waqar Azeem expressed his helplessness and said that this work is possible only if he himself reaches there and makes arrangements. At that time, the army had cordoned off PTV Karachi. In this situation, it was impossible for anyone to get in and out. When Col. Ashfaq arrived, he saw that the TV crew had been starving and thirsty for the past several hours. It should be broadcast that General Musharraf will address the nation after some time. Athar Waqar Azeem expressed his disability and said that the TV signal is off, so he is unable to do anything. After a few minutes of communication, Colonel Ashfaq was able to resume television broadcasts and thus the obstacle in the way of broadcasting the report of General Musharraf's speech was removed. Arrangements have been made to broadcast the announcement, but now the question before them is in what capacity will General Musharraf address the nation? Colonel Ashfaq wrote that when he left the corps headquarters This question was not before them at that time, it means that now the entire responsibility of the decision has fallen on them. At this point, a variety of ideas flashed through his mind, which he mentions in his book: 'The chief (General Musharraf) was no longer the chief, the prime minister was able to remove him, so now his Retired Chief of Army Staff What is the actual position? If not the de jure (legally) then the de facto chief. There was no point in going to the corps headquarters to consult with anyone as our question would have been to contact the Judge Advocate General Branch in the GHQ and then a long discussion would have ensued. The nation was waiting to know what was happening, what had happened. "He added:" We could have delayed the implementation of martial law. There was an example of this in the past when the chief invited the chairman of the senate to take over the presidency. Maybe it will still happen? We thought, let's go, let's give the chief a chance to make a wise decision, maybe wisdom will prevail. ' "The Chief of Army Staff will address the nation." Under normal circumstances, even if such a report had been given orally, it would have been enough. Requested in writing.

When Colonel Ashfaq handed over the declaration in his own handwriting, he was also asked to sign it, which was done to remove the obstacles in the way of the declaration.

Colonel Ashfaq took the television team to the corps headquarters and started recording, during which the speech was ready. The speech was handed over to Colonel Ashfaq so that he too could take a look at it. How was this speech written? General Musharraf has written in his book "First Pakistan" that I started writing the speech with my own hand, when it was completed, my colleagues approved it. Who were these companions? The book is silent about them. Colonel Ashfaq told me (Adil Farooq) that the speech was written by a Major General Iqbal from Mangla Corps. It was a military essay that took a lot of work to translate into the language of speech.

When Colonel Ashfaq conveyed his opinion to General Usmani, he said that he should immediately write a new speech on which he was told that this work was time-consuming and even if he prepared the speech soon, it would need to be revised. New proposals will come up and thus it will be too late and the nation will be left hanging on the cross. On this, Colonel Ashfaq suggested that a speech be prepared by sitting together. Together, they meant three people: General Pervez Musharraf, General Muzaffar Usmani, and Colonel Ashfaq. The proposal was agreed to. When General Usmani informed General Musharraf of this proposal, he also liked it, but when these people sat down to write a speech, a fourth person was also present in the middle. It was Major General Iqbal of Mangla Corps who drafted the first speech. At the beginning of this speech was written Bismillah-ur-Rehman-ur-Rehman and then Allah-Akbar. The four of them sat around a bridge table. Right in front of General Musharraf was Colonel Ashfaq, on the right was General Usmani and in front of him was General Iqbal. When everyone sat down, Colonel Ashfaq was asked to state his objections. Colonel Ashfaq read the first paragraph and objected that firstly it is not the language of speech and secondly its tone and accent are military instead of the public which can be addressed to soldiers but not civilians. When General Iqbal rejected these objections and started speaking in defense of his speech, General Musharraf justified General Ashfaq's objections and silenced the General. Colonel Ashfaq then sat down and wrote an alternative paragraph, which was approved by General Musharraf.

Thus the first four legs of the first speech were rejected and the alternate paragraphs were passed one after the other. General Iqbal got up from the table and joined some other officers standing on one side of the room and after a while, he left the room. One by one, Colonel Ashfaq started writing the speech and it was approved.

Now the speech was ready for recording but now the question was, in what attire will the general record the speech? General Sahib was in non-military attire at the time, it was decided that he would appear before the nation in commando uniform, so a commando was searched and his jacket, which was much larger than General Sahib's size, was clipped. An attempt was made to equalize his body but this attempt failed as the size of the jacket was much larger than his body which was estimated at first sight. There is also the name of the person wearing it on the uniform, his full name was on the uniform of General Sahib ie Pervez Musharraf in English, this full name could not be available at that time, so he got the badge of a soldier named Pervez there. A few days after this speech, the representative went to Army House Karachi for some work and an officer took out the badge from his desk drawer and showed it to him. General Musharraf took the speech and went to the corps commander's office where the recording was arranged. General Sahib was requested to recite the first paragraph of the speech as a rehearsal. When General Musharraf read it, his tone showed signs of travel fatigue and nervousness. Thus Colonel Ashfaq now faced another difficult stage, in front of the army chief and also the one who now owned the country's black and white, it was not easy to say that he was suffering from nervous tension, yet he continued Growing up, he asked General Musharraf to enjoy the juice he had been asked for and make another attempt to record it after creating energy in his tone. General Sahib was shocked at this demand and looked at General Osmani with questioning eyes. General Usmani shrugged and looked at the cameras, saying that for the time being, these people are the authority. A smile spread on General Musharraf's face. He then recorded the speech with confidence.

Another difficult step occurred when the recording was completed. In the last paragraph, two words were uttered by him which was felt by Colonel Ashfaq or Athar Waqar Azeem. When the General was informed, he asked nervously whether the entire speech would be recorded again. They were not told, only the last paragraph. Satisfied, he re-recorded the passage. The operation took place at 1:40 pm, but General Musharraf wrote that it happened at 2:30 pm. When the recording was completed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but one test remained. A television officer approached Colonel Ashfaq and asked what protocol would be followed while broadcasting the speech. This was a very complex and dangerous question. Colonel Ashfaq told him that General Sahib is only the Chief of Army Staff now, so it would be better not to play the national anthem, so after completing all these steps, it was time to broadcast this speech at 2:45 pm. Colonel Ashfaq says that the reason behind not playing the national anthem as a symbol and broadcasting his speech only as the Chief of Army Staff instead of the Chief Martial Law Administrator was that there was a possibility that it might go ahead. Let wisdom prevail and in the event of August 17, just as General Aslam Baig blocked the path of martial law by assuming the presidency of the Chairman of the Senate, such a situation may still arise. But General Musharraf blocked this path by announcing the post of Chief Executive for himself in his speech and thus the nation once again embarked on a journey which it had experienced many times before.