Gen Beg plays fast and loose

 

LAHORE: Pakistan’s hodgepodge of Napoleon, Clausewitz and Kissinger, former army chief, General Mirza Aslam Beg, is really a man rather less than these many parts. The publicity seeker that he is,  General Beg is once again in the news because of his recent interview to the Associated Press in which he has made many assertions, including that he had advised Iran to harass Israel through Hamas, like Pakistan does India in Kashmir. He also denied that Pakistan helped Iran get the N-bomb. He did say he was sure Iran has had enough time to develop them. Beg who held the position of COAS from 1988 to 1991, is frequently mentioned as being pivotal in  nuclear proliferation, and in aiming to build an Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan nexus to challenge US influence and Israel. After his retirement Beg remained a controversial figure.

 

Former Air Marshal Asghar Khan had filed a petition in the SC against General Beg, relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes, which is still pending in the courts. The case was initiated after Benazir Bhutto’s interior minister, Naseerullah Babar, had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994 how the ISI had disbursed funds to purchase the loyalty of politicians and public figures so as to manipulate the 1990 elections and bring about the defeat of the PPP.

 

General Beg conducted the biggest-ever army exercise in Pak’s history and got that other strategic genius Lt Gen Hamid Gul to be the referee between the Foxland and Blueland forces. He had the honour of postulating the doctrine of strategic defiance ala Saddam Hussein. Beg raised a storm in 1991 by publicly refusing to send troops to take part in the action against Iraq. This, for the first time, strained Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia. General Musharraf served under both Beg and had high regard for him.

 

However, after 9/11, their differences surfaced when in a press conference Musharraf spoke about the negative role played by Beg and called him a pseudo-intellectual. Hitting back, Beg allegedly said: “Bush has evidence that Pakistan was ready to sell enriched uranium and a nuclear power plant when Musharraf was everything from army chief to chairman, joint chiefs of staff and from president to chief executive”. On the other hand, two former cabinet ministers in the first Sharif government (1990-1993), Senator Ishaq Dar and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan have stated on record that in 1991 Beg lobbied Sharif for transfer of nuclear technology to a friendly state, for the sum of $12 billion. According to Dar, a representative of that friendly state accompanied Beg when he made the offer. However, Nawaz Sharif, had rejected Beg’s proposal.

 

Similarly, Nisar Ali Khan maintains that in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, Beg proposed that Pakistan should sell its N-technology to Iran as part of a grand alliance. Beg’s reasoning: that after the US succeeded in defeating Iraq, it might be Iran and Pakistan’s turn next. Sharif, according to Nisar, again rejected Beg’s proposal. But this does not rule out the possibility that Dr A Q Khan and Beg might have acted independently of the prime minister, who never had control over the nuclear weapons programme in any case. Already, there are reports that Pakistani investigators have found that Dr Khan informed Gen Beg of equipment transfers to Iran. However, Beg claims he received assurances from Khan that the equipment being sold to the Iranians was outmoded and would not enable them to enrich uranium in the short term.