Model Town FIR registered on Gen Raheel’s orders: Elahi

ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, former deputy prime minister entered the lounge of the Chaudhry’s house, located in a posh sector of Islamabad, wearing a traditional starched shalwar qameez and met almost half a dozen people present in the room with a deep smile.
The lounge decorated with different paintings, is quite an historic one in terms of the political events of at least last more than two decades. This is the same place where the Chaudhrys of Gujrat had nominated Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as Prime Minister in 2003. Later, the 17th constitutional amendment was also agreed upon in this very room giving legal protection to the military coup of October 12, 1999. Last but not the least, this is the same place from where the Chaudhrys practically controlled the political landscape of the country from 2003 to 2007. The quiet walls of this lounge are familiar with many secrets.
Pervaiz Elahi was visibly fresh, as he invited me to sit along him in one of the four sofa sets located at one corner of the lounge. Besides that a small cupboard was decorated with pictures of Ch Pervaiz Elahi and his elder cousin former Prime Minister Ch Shujaat Hussain with different world leaders including former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpaee, late Saudi King Abdullah, late ruler of UAE Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan, Hosni Mubarak, Col Qaddafi of Libya, killed by a mob during the Arab spring, and former Chinese President Hu Jin Tao.
Pervaiz Elahi is a graduate of Lahore’s Forman Christian College. He has the exposure to the world but all that is because of his politics which he had started from Gujrat and Lahore.These days, Pervaiz Elahi is struggling hard for the revival of the lost glory of the Chaudhrys in the political arena of the country. Though his elder cousin Ch Shujaat Hussain is ill, Elahi is confident that he will regain power which they were enjoying recently at the end of the Pakistan People’s Party five year tenure from 2008 to 2013.
Elahi is a staunch critic of Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif whom he had worked closely with in the mid 80’s and 90’s. Out of curiosity, I asked him about his memory regarding his first meeting with Mian Nawaz Sharif. Elahi quickly answered that he first met Nawaz Sharif soon after the 1977 coup of Gen Ziaul Haq when he announced to hold elections within three months.
Elahi, being the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2003 to 2007, remained most active by introducing Rescue 1122, patrolling police, establishing new hospitals and giving free education in Punjab. Many believe unlike Shahbaz Sharif, he paid attention to the entire province instead of pouring funds into only big cities.
Elahi recalled that after the announcement of Ziaul Haq, his uncle Zahoor Elahi was all set to contest elections from Lahore and he was looking after the campaign related issues when one fine morning he received a visiting card.
“I still have that card with me on which the name of Nawaz Sharif was printed as director of Ittefaq. I invited the man in my room and we had a normal meeting,” said Elahi.Recalling the details of that meeting, Elahi said that Nawaz Sharif offered monetary help for the elections which we refused telling him that we do not receive money. Elahi declared that meeting “unimpressive” and added that in the days to come his interaction with Nawaz Sharif increased. He recalled that in the year 1985, their family group got the majority in the non-party elections which followed deep mental wrangling for the new chief minister of Punjab.
“Those days, Gen Ziaul Haq was in power and was backing Malik Allah Yar Khund for the slot of Chief Minister Punjab. We floated name of Ch Shujaat Hussain for the slot as Malik Allah Yar was close to our opponents in Gujrat,” said Elahi.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Qayum and later Gen Jillani, the then Governor Punjab, approached the Chaudhrys and both of them proposed the name of Mian Nawaz Sharif as the new Chief Minister. Initially the Chaudhrys were reluctant to accept the young man.
“Gen Jillani gave an argument that Nawaz Sharif is a new boy and will follow the instructions of the Chaudhrys as they were seasoned politicians,” Elahi remembered the moments. Following the meeting of Governor Punjab, Ch Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi held a meeting with Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif at their office located at Empress Road, Lahore to materialise the political deal with the Sharifs.
Pervaiz Elahi said that during the meeting, Mian Shahbaz Sharif brought the Holy Quran and said that they (the Sharifs) will give an oath on the holy book that they would uphold their side of the deal. Elahi stopped the Sharifs from bringing the Holy Quran in this matter and told them that they would trust the words of Sharifs.
According to the understanding, Nawaz Sharif was to appoint speaker, deputy speaker and ministers on the recommendations of the Chaudhrys. However, when the days passed Nawaz Sharif started violating the understanding and attempted to break their group by telling the members of Punjab Assembly to directly approach him instead of using the route of the Chauhdrys of Punjab, particularly after the changing of Governor Punjab General Jillani.
Elahi said General Zia also had developed some hatred against Nawaz Sharif. Smelling the situation, they moved a no confidence motion against Sharif in the Punjab Assembly, he said. He said they were all set to win but at that point of time then Director General of ISI Gen Hameed Gul intervened and saved Nawaz Sharif.
“Gul convinced Gen Ziaul Haq that if the Chaudhrys get success, they would make a group with Mohammad Khan Junejo (who was sacked by Zia) and Pir Pagara thus an anti-Zia group would emerge,” Elahi said adding that today Hameed Gul also regrets his move which favoured Nawaz Sharif. This was the time when Gen Zia gave his famous statement, “May Nawaz Sharif get the remaining years of my life.”
The Chauhdrys got another opportunity to have complete control of Punjab in 1988 when their group got a majority of 18 members in the elections. At that point of time, Nawaz Sharif was sure that they won’t side with him. Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto approached them through Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari for an alliance in Punjab but the matter of the murder of Ch Zahoor Elahi became a hurdle, who was alleged to be killed by a PPP supporter.
“In fact my aunt, mother of Ch Shujaat Hussain, disapproved the idea of having an alliance with the PPP at that point of time,” said Pervaiz Elahi. Meanwhile Gen Jillani again approached them and assured that this time Nawaz Sharif has learnt a lot and would not repeat his mistakes.
Elahi said they reluctantly trusted Gen Jillani as they had no other option but history was repeated and Nawaz Sharif violated all the promises made with them.They skipped the era of the 90’s and tenure of Pervaiz Musharraf whom Elahi supported and later criticised for having a secret deal with Benazir Bhutto of the PPP in 2007-08. Elahi had publicly accused Gen Musharraf for causing the defeat of the PML-Q using the then DG ISI Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani.About the PTI and PAT sit-in when Chaudhrys supported Tahirul Qadri, Elahi said at that point of time Qadri was a victim as his innocent followers were killed in Model Town, Lahore.
He said even the First Information Report (FIR) was not being registered for that killing. He said that the FIR was registered on the orders of Gen Raheel Sharif during the meeting with Tahirul Qadri on August 27th, 2014 in Rawalpindi, in which he later requested the Chief of Army Staff to play a role, which he played.
He said when politicians won’t do their homework, someone will surely fill the space. About a secret meeting which he and Shujaat held with former ISI Chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam at his residence, Elahi neither gave any details nor denied the information and gave a calculated answer saying, “We had and have relations with the army on national issues.” Asked if he had met Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif and what is his observation about him were, Elahi said that his father was very close to the late Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi. He had only met him when they visited him for the fateha of his late mother, he said. He admitted that it was Asif Ali Zardari who saved Nawaz Sharif.
Despite having a clear difference of opinion with Zardari on this issue, Pervaiz Elahi lauds Zardari declaring him “a man of his words”. “Zardari knows the art of earning the confidence of his friends but Nawaz Sharif is not a trustworthy man,” said Elahi.When asked if he thinks Nawaz would complete his tenure, Elahi said that he is hopeful about the judicial commission’s upcoming verdict, without defining those hopes.