Was General Kayani Musharraf’s Brutus?
December 31, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Beleaguered ex-army chief Pervez Musharraf thinks in his heart of hearts that his buddy Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whom he had handpicked as his successor, acted like Brutus to oust him from the corridors of power and confined him to his farmhouse after a brief exile. The News learnt this during a one-on-one interaction with the ex-General here on Monday.
Asked if he regretted appointing Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as his successor, Musharraf responded but requested that it should not be mentioned. Recalling, Musharraf said General Tariq Majid was a good officer.
Asked exactly when he got the first shock from Gen. Kayani, Musharraf said: “He never gave me a shock. However I was disappointed at his overall attitude later on.”Earlier, a bespectacled Pervez Musharraf entered the drawing room with slow steps, with a smiling face. Donning a grey coat on a white shirt with blue lines and dark blue trousers, he shook hands with the reporter.
His legal and political wizard Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif and Raza Anjum, a young staff of the former military ruler, were also present.
The entrance to the drawing room was decorated with Quranic calligraphy and paintings depicting the Mughal empire of India. Vases of different colors and a silver plated framed dagger also adorned the wall.
While entering the farmhouse, a plainclothes man ushered me to the drawing room. He introduced himself as an MI official deployed for the security of the former president.
Musharraf tried to appear confident. I asked him about his source of inspiration. “From nowhere,” he replied and then hastened to add: “I get inspiration from myself.”
Musharraf said” “I would fight a lot…even in the basketball ground and was punished many a time during my career. However each time he learnt a lesson and started turning to a man what he was today.
Asked when he first felt he was in trouble. “This time, I feel I am in trouble but I will fight,” said the ex-president — a referring to the current situation in which he is facing a treason case filed by the federal government.
A man who spent eight years as the most powerful man of Pakistan admitted that he was surrounded by enemies all around. However, he was hopeful that he would overcome all those problems.
“Kill or to be killed and kill your enemy before he kills you,” he recalled his first lesson by his instructor when he had joined the Special Services Group (SSG) and shared with this correspondent his deep hatred for his political and apolitical enemies.
Asked who were after him, he turned serious and started naming one by one — Mulla Fazlullah, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Balochistan Liberation Army (because of the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti), elements of Red Mosque, Al-Qaeda etc. He also mentioned that Talal Bugti, the son of the late Akbar Bugti, had announced a bounty on his ehad.
Musharraf could not have imagined he himself could be a liability for the military. And this reporter did not draw his attention towards this. He reiterated that the army supported him against the “injustice” he was facing. However, he did not tell how he knew that the military was supporting him.
He continued his monologue and asked this reporter if I could tell him what was the most painful thing for a man. “Exile,” he replied. Probably, he could now feel the pain which exiled elected leaders had gone through when they were abroad during his tenure.
He said Dubai could be a very good place for living and London might be a very good city but one misses the “Grato Jalaibi and Lal Kurti, Rawalpindi ka Pan”. He also shared that one always misses the company of friends on the chess board of Bridge.
But I was curious to know about the fall of a ruler once internationally known as the iron man of Pakistan. Asked who had actually advised him to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2007, he said all concerned including the then prime minister.
We know that being head of the state as the army chief he would depend more on his intelligence services, particularly the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
My next query was about the calculation of the ISI on the removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. He said the ISI had also recommended him to remove Iftikhar Chaudhry. Asked if the ISI had the Plan “B” if the removal plan backfired, Musharraf shook his head in the negative with a sad face, probably remembering his mistake which at the end ousted him from the power corridors.
Musharraf thinks there was no comparison between him and his appointed Army Chief Gen Kayani. “A silent thinking man cannot be compared with the man who does things.”
Musharraf indirectly criticised Kayani but avoided to name him and did not speak much on the topic. He admitted that when he was interested in coming back to Pakistan in January 2012 the then chief of ISI Ahmad Shuja Pasha met him in Dubai convincing him not to come back.
He recalled that Pasha had given him arguments related to security threats as well as the legal issues. When asked was he there with the approval of the then Army Chief Gen. Kayani, Musharraf said: “Yes, might be.”
Since his arrival on March 23 this year to December 24 Musharraf has received almost 34 security alerts from the Interior Ministry.
Musharraf shared that he had written a letter to Gen. Raheel Sharif congratulating him on being the COAS. He did not criticise the choice of Nawaz Sharif. Asked if he wanted to meet Gen Raheel Sharif, Musharraf said he would never request him for a meeting. However he said: “If he (Gen Raheel) wanted to meet me, I won’t mind.”
When told that he was the man who shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee ever after the Kargil debacle and asked if he was ready to shake hands with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf said he had no issues shaking hands with anybody including Nawaz Sharif. However he is a small man, he said with a bitter taste adding that he was kind of a man who never keeps hatred in his pocket.
About the role of his international friends, he said: “I never ask for personal favours for myself from any of my international friends and I find this as an insult.”
He added that if his friends would be doing anything they would be doing it at their own. Asked if he ever found any brighter side of former Chief Justice Iftikhar, he bitterly criticized him.
Even in his most troubled days, the former commando still exercises regularly. He told me that his left leg was still having a problem but he does his exercises. Though turning old, one could notice his strong muscles giving him the look of a fit man.
He was seemingly stiff in the beginning and to calm him down I talked to him on soft subjects like I asked about his popularity among women, keeping the number of stories which circulated when he was President and the Army Chief.
Are you still popular among women? I asked a direct question. A hearty laughter came in response. He smiled with his jaws open, almost completely. Why are you asking this? He threw the question back at this reporter.
I told him what I had been hearing it. He smilingly asked some of names of women about whom I had been hearing stories with him. I told him that I did not believe because such women sometimes spread such rumours for their own fake importance and publicity.He admitted openly: “Yes everyone appreciates beauty, so do I.”
Musharraf was reluctant to share the names of the women he likes these days; however, he added he does not like cheap flirts or “Chichorapan”.
We had to end our discussion because of an unexpected guest. While I was leaving the farmhouse through Gate No. 1 thinking if the army was really supporting him silently, a man clad in shalwar qameez came to me seeking my cell number. When I asked him about his identity, he carelessly mentioned — ISI. I walked to my car and left the farmhouse.
Agencies add: Meanwhile, in an interview with BBC Urdu at his Chak Shahzad residence, Pervez Musharraf said that he left it to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) how far he would go in his defence in the treason case against him.
Musharraf claimed that the army was concerned and offended over the issue. He said the Pakistan Army is a disciplined force and he had spent his good and bad days with the army and also fought wars.
To a question how far the army would go to save him, Musharraf said, “Opinion is sought within the army, but it is the COAS who makes the final decision. I leave it to him what will he do,” the former military ruler said.
He denied that the army was his last hope, explaining that he was receiving the ‘feedback’ and he knew the ground level thinking in the army. He claimed that not only the army, but the common man also remembered his reign during which the poverty level was brought down and a motorcyclist became capable of purchasing a car.
When asked whether the silence of the army over the whole episode of treason case against him showed its consent, Musharraf said this question should be asked from the former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
However, he said, it was better that everything happened ‘quietly’ and in case of any action the newspapers published distorted reports which gave life to rumours. In that case, he said, the truth became falsehood and the falsehood became truth. “So it’s better that everything is done quietly,” he said.
The former president vowed to face the trial against him. He said there was nothing in the case and it was politically motivated. He said the basic requirements of the law were also being violated in the case.
He said that he did not know how far the special court hearing treason trial against him was impartial. However, he said he was hopeful to get justice from the judiciary and the Supreme Court.
Former president Pervez Musharraf has said that he is feeling threat from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Fazalullah, Lal Masjid activists, al-Qaeda and Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
“I think I am in problem,” he mentioned.Talking to private TV channel, Musharraf said that Ahmad Shuja Pasha warned him about threats when first time he decided to come back Pakistan.
He said if his international friends wanted to do something this solely depended upon their own wish and he would not say anything to anybody.“Talal Bugti has fixed bounty on my head,” Musharraf mentioned.Former president said that he would also not demand meeting with COAS General Raheel Sharif and if Raheel himself came to meet him, he would have no objection over it.
Asked if he regretted appointing Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as his successor, Musharraf responded but requested that it should not be mentioned. Recalling, Musharraf said General Tariq Majid was a good officer.
Asked exactly when he got the first shock from Gen. Kayani, Musharraf said: “He never gave me a shock. However I was disappointed at his overall attitude later on.”Earlier, a bespectacled Pervez Musharraf entered the drawing room with slow steps, with a smiling face. Donning a grey coat on a white shirt with blue lines and dark blue trousers, he shook hands with the reporter.
His legal and political wizard Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif and Raza Anjum, a young staff of the former military ruler, were also present.
The entrance to the drawing room was decorated with Quranic calligraphy and paintings depicting the Mughal empire of India. Vases of different colors and a silver plated framed dagger also adorned the wall.
While entering the farmhouse, a plainclothes man ushered me to the drawing room. He introduced himself as an MI official deployed for the security of the former president.
Musharraf tried to appear confident. I asked him about his source of inspiration. “From nowhere,” he replied and then hastened to add: “I get inspiration from myself.”
Musharraf said” “I would fight a lot…even in the basketball ground and was punished many a time during my career. However each time he learnt a lesson and started turning to a man what he was today.
Asked when he first felt he was in trouble. “This time, I feel I am in trouble but I will fight,” said the ex-president — a referring to the current situation in which he is facing a treason case filed by the federal government.
A man who spent eight years as the most powerful man of Pakistan admitted that he was surrounded by enemies all around. However, he was hopeful that he would overcome all those problems.
“Kill or to be killed and kill your enemy before he kills you,” he recalled his first lesson by his instructor when he had joined the Special Services Group (SSG) and shared with this correspondent his deep hatred for his political and apolitical enemies.
Asked who were after him, he turned serious and started naming one by one — Mulla Fazlullah, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Balochistan Liberation Army (because of the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti), elements of Red Mosque, Al-Qaeda etc. He also mentioned that Talal Bugti, the son of the late Akbar Bugti, had announced a bounty on his ehad.
Musharraf could not have imagined he himself could be a liability for the military. And this reporter did not draw his attention towards this. He reiterated that the army supported him against the “injustice” he was facing. However, he did not tell how he knew that the military was supporting him.
He continued his monologue and asked this reporter if I could tell him what was the most painful thing for a man. “Exile,” he replied. Probably, he could now feel the pain which exiled elected leaders had gone through when they were abroad during his tenure.
He said Dubai could be a very good place for living and London might be a very good city but one misses the “Grato Jalaibi and Lal Kurti, Rawalpindi ka Pan”. He also shared that one always misses the company of friends on the chess board of Bridge.
But I was curious to know about the fall of a ruler once internationally known as the iron man of Pakistan. Asked who had actually advised him to remove Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2007, he said all concerned including the then prime minister.
We know that being head of the state as the army chief he would depend more on his intelligence services, particularly the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
My next query was about the calculation of the ISI on the removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. He said the ISI had also recommended him to remove Iftikhar Chaudhry. Asked if the ISI had the Plan “B” if the removal plan backfired, Musharraf shook his head in the negative with a sad face, probably remembering his mistake which at the end ousted him from the power corridors.
Musharraf thinks there was no comparison between him and his appointed Army Chief Gen Kayani. “A silent thinking man cannot be compared with the man who does things.”
Musharraf indirectly criticised Kayani but avoided to name him and did not speak much on the topic. He admitted that when he was interested in coming back to Pakistan in January 2012 the then chief of ISI Ahmad Shuja Pasha met him in Dubai convincing him not to come back.
He recalled that Pasha had given him arguments related to security threats as well as the legal issues. When asked was he there with the approval of the then Army Chief Gen. Kayani, Musharraf said: “Yes, might be.”
Since his arrival on March 23 this year to December 24 Musharraf has received almost 34 security alerts from the Interior Ministry.
Musharraf shared that he had written a letter to Gen. Raheel Sharif congratulating him on being the COAS. He did not criticise the choice of Nawaz Sharif. Asked if he wanted to meet Gen Raheel Sharif, Musharraf said he would never request him for a meeting. However he said: “If he (Gen Raheel) wanted to meet me, I won’t mind.”
When told that he was the man who shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee ever after the Kargil debacle and asked if he was ready to shake hands with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf said he had no issues shaking hands with anybody including Nawaz Sharif. However he is a small man, he said with a bitter taste adding that he was kind of a man who never keeps hatred in his pocket.
About the role of his international friends, he said: “I never ask for personal favours for myself from any of my international friends and I find this as an insult.”
He added that if his friends would be doing anything they would be doing it at their own. Asked if he ever found any brighter side of former Chief Justice Iftikhar, he bitterly criticized him.
Even in his most troubled days, the former commando still exercises regularly. He told me that his left leg was still having a problem but he does his exercises. Though turning old, one could notice his strong muscles giving him the look of a fit man.
He was seemingly stiff in the beginning and to calm him down I talked to him on soft subjects like I asked about his popularity among women, keeping the number of stories which circulated when he was President and the Army Chief.
Are you still popular among women? I asked a direct question. A hearty laughter came in response. He smiled with his jaws open, almost completely. Why are you asking this? He threw the question back at this reporter.
I told him what I had been hearing it. He smilingly asked some of names of women about whom I had been hearing stories with him. I told him that I did not believe because such women sometimes spread such rumours for their own fake importance and publicity.He admitted openly: “Yes everyone appreciates beauty, so do I.”
Musharraf was reluctant to share the names of the women he likes these days; however, he added he does not like cheap flirts or “Chichorapan”.
We had to end our discussion because of an unexpected guest. While I was leaving the farmhouse through Gate No. 1 thinking if the army was really supporting him silently, a man clad in shalwar qameez came to me seeking my cell number. When I asked him about his identity, he carelessly mentioned — ISI. I walked to my car and left the farmhouse.
Agencies add: Meanwhile, in an interview with BBC Urdu at his Chak Shahzad residence, Pervez Musharraf said that he left it to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) how far he would go in his defence in the treason case against him.
Musharraf claimed that the army was concerned and offended over the issue. He said the Pakistan Army is a disciplined force and he had spent his good and bad days with the army and also fought wars.
To a question how far the army would go to save him, Musharraf said, “Opinion is sought within the army, but it is the COAS who makes the final decision. I leave it to him what will he do,” the former military ruler said.
He denied that the army was his last hope, explaining that he was receiving the ‘feedback’ and he knew the ground level thinking in the army. He claimed that not only the army, but the common man also remembered his reign during which the poverty level was brought down and a motorcyclist became capable of purchasing a car.
When asked whether the silence of the army over the whole episode of treason case against him showed its consent, Musharraf said this question should be asked from the former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
However, he said, it was better that everything happened ‘quietly’ and in case of any action the newspapers published distorted reports which gave life to rumours. In that case, he said, the truth became falsehood and the falsehood became truth. “So it’s better that everything is done quietly,” he said.
The former president vowed to face the trial against him. He said there was nothing in the case and it was politically motivated. He said the basic requirements of the law were also being violated in the case.
He said that he did not know how far the special court hearing treason trial against him was impartial. However, he said he was hopeful to get justice from the judiciary and the Supreme Court.
Former president Pervez Musharraf has said that he is feeling threat from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Fazalullah, Lal Masjid activists, al-Qaeda and Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
“I think I am in problem,” he mentioned.Talking to private TV channel, Musharraf said that Ahmad Shuja Pasha warned him about threats when first time he decided to come back Pakistan.
He said if his international friends wanted to do something this solely depended upon their own wish and he would not say anything to anybody.“Talal Bugti has fixed bounty on my head,” Musharraf mentioned.Former president said that he would also not demand meeting with COAS General Raheel Sharif and if Raheel himself came to meet him, he would have no objection over it.
