A Long-Standing Rule Finally Broken

For many years there has been an unwritten rule requiring the Pakistani media not to print nor mention the name of the Director General of Military Intelligence.

Even in Chief Justice Ifitkhar Chaudhry’s recently submitted affidavit the senior intelligence officer is simply referred to as DG MI.

The first time your Blogger saw the intelligence official’s name in print was thanks to Carlotta Gall of The New York Times. Ten days ago, in a news piece about the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court by the CJ, she wrote: Maj. Gen. Nadeem Ijaz, the director general of Military Intelligence and a close relative of General Musharraf.

With his back suddenly to the wall Musharraf seems to have ditched this ‘hallowed’ convention altogether by getting the DG MI to submit an affidavit in a public court of law. And so the general public finally got a peek at his name from this official document, which begins:

I, Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmad son of Late Mian Ijaz Ahmad, presently working as Director General, Military Intelligence (“DG MI”), do hereby solemnly state on oath as under:-

I was appointed as DG MI on 28 February 2005, and have continued to work in that position ever since…

Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, your Blogger can confirm what Carlotta Gall gave away: ‘Major General Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmad son of Late Mian Ijaz Ahmad’, also happens to be Mrs Sehba Musharraf’s nephew; his mother being Mrs Musharraf’s elder sister.

More importantly, the hawkish DG MI is believed by many to be one of the Commando General’s closest of advisers in most, if not all, matters these days.
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One intriguing aspect of the counter-affidavits submitted by Musharraf’s lawyers is the omission of one from Lt. Gen. Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani, the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI).

It is worth commenting that the existing three affidavits have all been given by men known to be close to Musharraf; DG MI is a family member; DG IB, Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Shah, is an old friend; and Lt. General (Retd) Hamid Javed has been serving Musharraf loyally as his Chief of Staff ever since 1 November 2002.

Is it possible that, as an outsider to this close Musharraf loop, the DG ISI was reluctant to embroider the facts?
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According to a news report while over a dozen affidavits of government servants are attached to the affidavit of Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Javaid, doubts do exist about their veracity:

At least, one of them is now uncertain not only about the signatures on “his” affidavit but also its contents. At one point, he categorically said that the affidavit was never signed by him. At another stage, he said that the signatures appearing on the affidavit were not his but these did resemble his initials.

Talking to The News on the assurance that his name would not be disclosed, the concerned signatory was apprehensive and shy of going to the court for being a government servant. Since the filing of an absolutely “fake” affidavit does not make sense, the officer was asked to come on the record but he did not oblige. The officer hails from the Punjab.

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Pakistan