ISLAMABAD, April 20 Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is generally believed to be a discovery of General (retd) Ghulam Jilani, the governor of Punjab in Gen Zia-ul-Haq`s dictatorial regime in the early 80s, but actually it was the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) which found him to be “a true patriot and a practicing Muslim”, and, therefore, fully qualified to lead the country.
“I always held this view in our analyses that he (Sharif) was one man who had the making of a good leader. A true patriot and a practising Muslim… time proved that our assessment was right,” revealed Brig (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed, a former intelligence official, in an interview with DawnNews.
Brig (retd) Imtiaz is accused of having masterminded the so-called Operation Midnight Jackal of the ISI to topple the first Benazir Bhutto government by buying off some People`s Party parliamentarians.
He denied his involvement in the operation and described as fake the video tapes – produced by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1994 – in which he and his subordinate Major (retd) Amir were shown working on some PPP parliamentarians.
Imtiaz served in the ISI under General Akhtar Abdul Rehman and Lt-Gen Hamid Gul until he was posted outside the agency. After his retirement, he was appointed director general of the IB in 1990 by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. But he was sacked when Benazir Bhutto came to power in 1993.
Brig (retd) Imtiaz is considered to be quite close to the Sharif family. “I have a very long association with Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif. And my friendship with them always stood the test of time,” he told DawnNews.
Brig (retd) Imtiaz has held several meetings with the Sharifs since their return to Pakistan in 2007, and especially after the formation of the PML-N government in Punjab.
He observed that the PML-N provincial government was facing a series of conspiracies and said that he was ready to offer his services to the Sharifs in larger national interests. But he hastened to contradict reports about being part of conspiracies against the PPP government led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Asked to comment on the distribution of dollars among Afghan Mujahideen in the 1980s, he said the money was paid directly by the director general of ISI.
The complete interview of Brig (retd) Imtiaz will be telecast on DawnNews at 1105 p.m. on Tuesday.
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