Mushahidullah second casualty of 2014 sit-in after Hashmi

ISLAMABAD: Mushahidullah Khan, in a sense, turned out to be the second political casualty of last year’s turbulent sit-ins, with the first being Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, who had stormed out of the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) saying he can’t be part of its anti-democracy conspiracy, writes Tariq Butt.
The federal minister for climate change’s bombshell apparently embarrassed the Nawaz Sharif government mainly because it contained categorical details of the alleged episode, directly involving former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Zaheerul Islam in the sit-ins.
Mushahidullah’s instant resignation, which was obviously sought by the prime minister, was a major damage control and firefighting exercise to avoid eruption of any misgivings and misunderstandings in the otherwise excellent government-military relations. His remarks have apparently caused consternation in the army circles. His exit may also help settle the dust being kicked up by the PTI over his remarks.
Since a cabinet member made the startling claims, the responsibility lied on the shoulders of the prime minister to come clean that he had not sanctioned or nodded him to make the controversial disclosures, and to give the unambiguous message that what the teammate did was his personal venture. However, what has not been highlighted in the Pakistani media from Mushahidullah’s talk with the British broadcaster is that he stated in it that he had ‘heard’ about the audiotape of Zaheerul Islam and other details regarding it. A committed party man since long, Mushahidullah was inducted in the federal cabinet just a few months back. His summary disposal has brought a considerable penalty as losing the cabinet slot is a major punishment for a federal minister.
Hashmi, who was then president of the PTI, angrily left the party accusing Imran Khan of being a tool in the grand conspiracy to rock the democratic government, thus exposing the game plan. For a number of times, he elaborated the reasons behind his decision. Mushahidullah has been shown the door for making claims about the then ISI chief’s role in the sit-ins. His expose was timed with the first anniversary of the sit-ins on the Independence Day. However, Defence Minister Khawaja M Asif has also been making disclosures about the roles of Zaheerul Islam and another former ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha in the sit-ins. But he always left some gaps and avoided comprehensive and definite details. Perhaps for this reason, neither the prime minister against him ever took any action nor was he asked to refrain from such talk.
On July 10 he had ultimately named Zaheerul Islam for his alleged role in destabilising the government during the sit-ins in prominent anchorperson Absar Alam’s TV show. He said Zaheerul Islam had pushed the “London Plan” conspiracy against the government. What had been discussed in closed-door meetings of the rulers was thus finally made public by him.
Asif said in the interview that the 2014 London Plan against the Nawaz Sharif government was the collective work of two Zaheerul Islam and Pasha.
Although Pasha has been mentioned earlier to be behind the sit-ins, Zaheerul Islam was named for the first time to have plotted against the democratically elected constitutional government. However, the government or the military leadership have not questioned them.
The defence minister had said that because of his role against the government Zaheerul Islam had hurt the national interest.
To settle his personal grudge, Asif said, Zaheerul Islam hurt the national interest. He said that the situation was handled well by the prime minister, who remained patient. He lamented that for personal objectives, the national interest was compromised.
“Zaheerul Islam has a personal grievance,” the minister said, adding that Pasha also had a role in the London Plan.
Asif said that before Zaheerul Islam, Pasha had been meeting politicians in order to influence them to join the PTI. In a Karachi restaurant, he said, Pasha had told the corporate executives in 2012 to finance PTI’s political activities.
The minister also said the media and media persons were also used to destabilise the government and make the 2014 sit-ins a success in order to get the elected prime minister resigned.
He said that everything was planned and orchestrated against the government and for this the media and media persons were used. He said that his 2006 National Assembly speech, which had a definite context, was also run on TV channels to target him and the government during those days.
When asked if 2015 would see the repeat of 2014, the minister ruled it out saying that today there is complete unanimity between the civilian and military leaderships on all issues including National Action Plan, Zarb-e-Azb and foreign policy. He said the government and the institutions are working as one unit for the better future of Pakistan.