Islamabad: Former army chief General Ziauddin Butt says that General Pervez Musharraf was known as YK2 (Yahya Khan 2) in army circles before appointment as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) due to his loose character.
General Butt was appointed as COAS on October 12, 1999, by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after removing Musharraf. He said that had there been a thorough investigation of General Musharraf’s character before his appointment as COAS, he would have never been elevated to the top.
During an interview, General Butt said stories of Musharraf’s loose character were rife in army and even in civilian circles, but he was appointed COAS by superseding two senior most generals.
Talking about the events that led to the 1999 military coup, Butt said that after the Kargil war, Musharraf had started an extensive diatribe against the prime minister, holding him responsible for the debacle. The forced retirement of then corps commander Quetta General Tariq Pervaiz also aggravated the situation, he said.
When asked about a reported ISI inquiry into the Kargil war, Butt, who was heading the ISI during the war, said that ISI had prepared a detailed report about the war which did not declare Kargil operation as a victory for Pakistan. The inquiry held General Musharraf, General Aziz and General Mehmood responsible for the Kargil debacle, concluding that the operation was a threat to the security and integrity of the country. It added that the report was to be presented to the prime minister, but before that General Musharraf staged the coup.
To a question about the veracity of the reports that General Musharrad had planned to execute Nawaz Sharif before his exile to Saudi Arabia, General Butt said that he had heard the then regime was hell bent upon executing Sharif. “Nawaz Sharif was first tried in Anti-Terrorism Court, then in Sindh High Court, which handed down life term to the former prime minister. But the government filed appeal for turning the life term into death sentence,” he added. But King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia came to Sharif’s rescue and Musharraf had to change his plan after Abdullah’s threat to discontinue the free oil facility, which the kingdom was extending amid international sanctions on Pakistan following the nuclear explosion in 1998, he added.
General Butt, who had to brave over two years in solitary confinement during Musharraf’s regime, claimed that General Musharraf had planned to take over much before the 1999 coup.
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