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The 16 Baloch connection that Lt. General (retd) Asad Durrani is trying to establish in his opinion piece for Surkhiyan.pk titled, “The Raw Connection!” is a flimsy connection with no justification.
It was General Aslam Beg whose role was decisive in holding free and fair elections in November 1988 and transfer of power to the PPP government. Even as VCOAS, Beg was not a part of Zia’s inner circle.
The PPP regime instead of appreciating General Beg’s crucial role in restoration of democracy, began manoeuvres to sideline him. This led to General Beg’s disenchantment with the PPP, a party whose policies he had supported from his heart even when ZA Bhutto had been sidelined and was under fire after 5 July 1977.
The 1988 and 1990 meddling was certainly spearheaded by G. I Khan who had a personal enmity with the PPP and also bypassed General Beg because of his direct contacts inside the army as well as the civil bureaucracy.
The ISI in 1988-89 was only partially in General Beg’s control while G. I Khan was the leading character in destabilizing the PPP government of the time.
Two things that forced General Beg to distance himself from PPP were the Pucca Qilla incident at Hyderabad in which Benazir Bhutto (BB) accused the army of supplying POF weapons to the mohajirs and second was BB publicly criticized the army for crossing the red line by enriching uranium to a level which was not acceptable to big powers.
She also gave an interview to BBC in which she mentioned her support to India in crushing the Khalistan movement. All of the above is part of SC judgment in Asghar Khan’s case.
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