Mirza Aslam Beg
Encyclopedia
General
Mirza Aslam Beg, SBt, HI(M), NI(M), afwc, psc (born 2 August 1931), is a retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
succeeding General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
, after the latter died in an air crash on 17 August 1988. He continued to hold the powerful post of Chief of Army Staff till 1991, when his political ambitions forced the then President
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
to nominate General Asif Nawaz
as the new Chief of Army Staff three months prior to General Beg’s retirement. As Chief of Army Staff, Beg is credited for improving the fighting capabilities of the Pakistan Army.
village. His father Mirza Murtaza Beg was a small-town lawyer who practised in Azamgarh Civil Court. Beg did his secondary schooling in Azamgarh, UP, India, from Shibli National College.
on 23 August 1952. In 1958, Captain Beg was selected for the Special Service Group and did his training in the United States. As a Major, Beg commanded an SSG company in 1960 to remove the Nawab of Dir
in Chitral
in the northern part of North-West Frontier Province
. From March 1975 to January 1978, then Brigadier Mirza Aslam Beg stayed as the Chief Instructor of Armed Forces War College at the then National Defence College
, Rawalpindi.
of the Pakistan Army for five years from 1980 to 1985. As CGS, Beg was in charge of planning the counter-offensive to the 1984 Indian invasion of Siachen
marking the beginnings of the ongoing Siachen conflict
. After serving at the GHQ, both as major general and lieutenant general, he commanded the XI Corps
at Peshawar from 1985 to 1987.
(PPP) with Benazir Bhutto
as the premier. Beg, however, remained a powerful chief of army staff until 1991, when he was replaced by General Asif Nawaz
. He retired from the army on 16 August 1991 after completing 39 years of military service.
As COAS, General Beg is credited by an Australian expert for encouraging "wider thinking about tactics" within the Pakistan Army
, particularly for establishing a much improved logistics chain and "contributed immensely to the army’s warfighting capabilities."
filed a petition in the Supreme Court (HRC 19/96) against the retired General Mirza Aslam Beg, the former Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) chief retired Lt General Asad Durrani
and Younis Habib of Mehran Bank (merged with NBP
in 1995), relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes, which is still pending hearing by the Supreme Court of Pakistan
. According to one of the Pakistani newspaper editorial, General Durrani who had distributed Rs 140 million to win over the “for-sale” politicians never felt ashamed of his role or offered an apology.
The case was initiated by Air Marshal Asghar Khan after Benazir Bhutto's interior minister, another retired general, 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. Aslam Beg managed to get Rs 140 million from Younis Habib and deposited in the Survey Section 202 account of Military Intelligence, then headed by Major General Javed Ashraf Qazi. From there, Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
's election cellmates (Lt General Syed Refaqat, Roedad Khan
, and Ijlal Haider Zaidi
), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account.
, the consulting editor of The Friday Times contends that after taking over as Chief of Army Staff, General Aslam Beg began talking about “selling” nuclear technology as a part of his “strategy of defiance” of the United States
. He knew that such a nuclear cooperation with Iran
was popular and that, within an increasingly anti-American army Saudi Arabia
and the Persian Gulf Arabs
were less popular as American clients in the region. General Beg encouraged dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to proliferate sensitive centrifuge technology to Iran, and North Korea. The speed with which he declared the new nuclear policy leads one to speculate whether he simply wanted the “obstacle” of General Zia to disappear from the scene. Zia was close to the Arabs, especially to Saudi Arabia, that had built a grand multi-million dollar mosque in Islamabad
, the Faisal Mosque
, where he was appropriately buried after his death.
, founder of gas-centrifuge technology for the Pakistan's nuclear devices, about bringing Iran into the fold of nuclear prowess much to the annoyance of his boss, General Zia-ul-Haq. Therefore, fueling the contention of Zia's son Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
, that Beg was behind the death of his father. Even the Shafiur Rehman Commission that was to establish the cause of the crash of Zia's plane concluded that because of Army's obstruction in the investigation, the real perpetrators behind the attack cannot be brought forward.
, the editor of Daily Times sharply rebukes General Beg for his past misadventures into the domain of politics in a recent editorial. He asks the former general to apologize for warning the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
off a large area of internal and external policy in 1988, and to apologize to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
for violating an agreed foreign policy decision to send Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia when Saddam Hussein
invaded Kuwait
in 1990.
In the same article Sethi contends that General Aslam Beg should "apologise for bringing the Supreme Court
in contempt when he admitted that he had influenced the chief justice to prevent the restoration of Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo
. When confronted with challenging a general, the Supreme Court under Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah
got cold feet and let General Beg go Scot free."
served under both Beg and Gul, and apparently had high respect for them, but after September 11, 2001
, they gradually drifted apart. Their differences surfaced for the first time when in a press conference Musharraf spoke about the negative role of a few generals and called them "pseudo-intellectuals."
Later in January 2008, General Aslam Beg being part of Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society urged President Musharraf to voluntarily step down in the greater interests of Pakistan.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Mirza Aslam Beg, SBt, HI(M), NI(M), afwc, psc (born 2 August 1931), is a retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
succeeding General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
, after the latter died in an air crash on 17 August 1988. He continued to hold the powerful post of Chief of Army Staff till 1991, when his political ambitions forced the then President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
to nominate General Asif Nawaz
Asif Nawaz
General Asif Nawaz Janjua, NI, HI, SBt , afwc, psc , was a senior four-star general and the 10th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from August 16, 1991 till January 8, 1993. His tenure was cut short by his death after suffering a heart attack...
as the new Chief of Army Staff three months prior to General Beg’s retirement. As Chief of Army Staff, Beg is credited for improving the fighting capabilities of the Pakistan Army.
Family life
Aslam Beg was born to a Muslim family in AzamgarhAzamgarh
Azamgarh is a town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is headquarters of Azamgarh district and Azamgarh Division.-History:Azamgarh, one of the easternmost districts of the State, once formed a part of the ancient Kosala kingdom, except the north-eastern part of it which was included in the...
village. His father Mirza Murtaza Beg was a small-town lawyer who practised in Azamgarh Civil Court. Beg did his secondary schooling in Azamgarh, UP, India, from Shibli National College.
Army career
Beg was commissioned in the 6th PMA Long Course in the Infantry's Baloch RegimentBaloch Regiment
The Baloch Regiment is an infantry regiment of Pakistan Army. The modern regiment was formed in May 1956 by the merger of 8th Punjab and Bahawalpur Regiments with the Baluch Regiment. Since then, further raisings have brought the strength of the Regiment to more than fifty battalions...
on 23 August 1952. In 1958, Captain Beg was selected for the Special Service Group and did his training in the United States. As a Major, Beg commanded an SSG company in 1960 to remove the Nawab of Dir
Dir District
Dir District was a district of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan between 1970 and 1996. It was part of Malakand Division.Dir District was created in 1970 after the princely state of Dir was abolished the year before. Dir District was 5,280 square kilometres in area and lay along the...
in Chitral
Chitral
Chitral or Chetrar , translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River , in Pakistan. The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, high...
in the northern part of North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
. From March 1975 to January 1978, then Brigadier Mirza Aslam Beg stayed as the Chief Instructor of Armed Forces War College at the then National Defence College
National Defence University, Islamabad
The National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the Ministry of Defence of Government of Pakistan, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy...
, Rawalpindi.
Senior appointments
In 1978, Beg was promoted to major general and posted as the Adjutant General (AG) at GHQ. Later, he served as the Chief of General Staff (CGS)Chief of General Staff (Pakistan)
Chief of General Staff, shortly abbreviated as CGS, is the most coveted position within the Pakistan Army. Although four-star Chief of Army Staff is the nominal head of the land forces, CGS is the operational and intelligence lead of the institution...
of the Pakistan Army for five years from 1980 to 1985. As CGS, Beg was in charge of planning the counter-offensive to the 1984 Indian invasion of Siachen
Operation Meghdoot
Operation Meghdoot was the name given to the attack launched by the Indian Military to capture the Siachen Glacier in the disputed Kashmir region, precipitating the Siachen Conflict. Launched on 13 April 1984, this military operation was unique as the first assault launched in the world's highest...
marking the beginnings of the ongoing Siachen conflict
Siachen conflict
The Siachen Conflict, sometimes referred to as the Siachen War, is a military conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed Siachen Glacier region in Kashmir. The conflict began in 1984 with India's successful Operation Meghdoot during which it wrested control of the Siachen Glacier from...
. After serving at the GHQ, both as major general and lieutenant general, he commanded the XI Corps
XI Corps (Pakistan)
The XI Corps is an active administrative corp of Pakistan Army. The XI Corps is the only one corps that is assigned in the North-West Frontier Province . It is currently stationed in Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtaunkhuwa. The Corps was established and quickly raised in 1975 to support administrative...
at Peshawar from 1985 to 1987.
Chief of Army Staff
By March 1987, Beg was promoted to four-star general and took over as Vice Chief of Army Staff in General Zia-ul-Haq's military administration. After Zia's death in a plane crash on 17 August 1988, Beg became Army chief. Soon thereafter, general elections followed, resulting in a transfer of government to the Pakistan Peoples PartyPakistan Peoples Party
The Pakistan Peoples Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Pakistan affiliated with Socialist International. Pakistan People's Party is the largest political party of Pakistan...
(PPP) with Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
as the premier. Beg, however, remained a powerful chief of army staff until 1991, when he was replaced by General Asif Nawaz
Asif Nawaz
General Asif Nawaz Janjua, NI, HI, SBt , afwc, psc , was a senior four-star general and the 10th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from August 16, 1991 till January 8, 1993. His tenure was cut short by his death after suffering a heart attack...
. He retired from the army on 16 August 1991 after completing 39 years of military service.
As COAS, General Beg is credited by an Australian expert for encouraging "wider thinking about tactics" within the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
, particularly for establishing a much improved logistics chain and "contributed immensely to the army’s warfighting capabilities."
Mehran Bank scandal
After his retirement Beg remained a controversial figure, both for his alleged role in a Bank scandal and the nuclear proliferation issue. Former Air Marshal Asghar KhanAsghar Khan
Air Marshal Asghar Khan is a Pakistani 3-star rank general and politician who was the first native Air Force Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Air Force. A politician and world war II veteran fighter pilot, at the age of 36, he served as the youngest and first Pakistani head of the Pakistan Air Force...
filed a petition in the Supreme Court (HRC 19/96) against the retired General Mirza Aslam Beg, the former Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) chief retired Lt General Asad Durrani
Asad Durrani
Lieutenant General Mohammad Asad Durrani , is a retired 3-star rank general in the Pakistan Army and presently an intelligence commentator...
and Younis Habib of Mehran Bank (merged with NBP
National Bank of Pakistan
National Bank of Pakistan is one of the largest commercial bank operating in Pakistan. It has redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organisation into a modern commercial bank...
in 1995), relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes, which is still pending hearing by the Supreme Court of Pakistan
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
. According to one of the Pakistani newspaper editorial, General Durrani who had distributed Rs 140 million to win over the “for-sale” politicians never felt ashamed of his role or offered an apology.
The case was initiated by Air Marshal Asghar Khan after Benazir Bhutto's interior minister, another retired general, Naseerullah Babar
Naseerullah Babar
Major-General Naseerullah Khan Babar , SJ, HJ, was a retired 2-star rank general officer in the Pakistan Army, and later career military officer-turned statesman from the leftist democratic soclialist, the Pakistan Peoples Party...
, 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. Aslam Beg managed to get Rs 140 million from Younis Habib and deposited in the Survey Section 202 account of Military Intelligence, then headed by Major General Javed Ashraf Qazi. From there, Rs 6 crore was paid to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
's election cellmates (Lt General Syed Refaqat, Roedad Khan
Roedad Khan
Roedad Khan was Pakistani statesman from the start to the end of the Cold war. During his long career, Khan was one of the most senior civil servants of Pakistan. In 1923, Khan was born in Mardan, North-West Frontier Province, British Indian Empire, to a ethnic working class Pashtun family that...
, and Ijlal Haider Zaidi
Ijlal Haider Zaidi
Syed Ijlal Haider Zaidi is a retired member of the Civil Service of Pakistan . He served in various key administrative and secretarial capacities, including Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar, Director General of Radio Pakistan, Chief Secretary of Azad Kashmir, Chief Secretary of North-West Frontier...
), and Rs 8 crore transferred to the ISI account.
Nuclear proliferation with Iran
Khaled AhmedKhaled Ahmed
Khaled Ahmed , born 21 December 1943, is a best known Pakistani political analyst, his weekly column appears in Pakistan's newspaper The Friday Times. He regularly contributes to The Daily Times, both published in Lahore....
, the consulting editor of The Friday Times contends that after taking over as Chief of Army Staff, General Aslam Beg began talking about “selling” nuclear technology as a part of his “strategy of defiance” of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He knew that such a nuclear cooperation with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
was popular and that, within an increasingly anti-American army Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and the Persian Gulf Arabs
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
were less popular as American clients in the region. General Beg encouraged dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to proliferate sensitive centrifuge technology to Iran, and North Korea. The speed with which he declared the new nuclear policy leads one to speculate whether he simply wanted the “obstacle” of General Zia to disappear from the scene. Zia was close to the Arabs, especially to Saudi Arabia, that had built a grand multi-million dollar mosque in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, the Faisal Mosque
Faisal Mosque
The Faisal Mosque is the largest mosque in Pakistan and is located in the national capital city of Islamabad.Faisal Mosque is conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan...
, where he was appropriately buried after his death.
Accusation of role in Zia's death
It is also claimed in the above mentioned article that Aslam Beg's strategy was much in-sync with Abdul Qadeer KhanAbdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, founder of gas-centrifuge technology for the Pakistan's nuclear devices, about bringing Iran into the fold of nuclear prowess much to the annoyance of his boss, General Zia-ul-Haq. Therefore, fueling the contention of Zia's son Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq
Ch Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq is a prominent Pakistani politician and a businessman who served as a Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Minorities under the Government of Prime minister Shaukat Aziz. A former Pakistan Army officer, Haq joined the Pakistan Army in 1971, as second lieutnenat, but...
, that Beg was behind the death of his father. Even the Shafiur Rehman Commission that was to establish the cause of the crash of Zia's plane concluded that because of Army's obstruction in the investigation, the real perpetrators behind the attack cannot be brought forward.
Playing politics as the Chief of Army Staff
Najam SethiNajam Sethi
Najam Sethi is an award-winning Pakistani journalist and the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a Lahore-based political weekly. He was previously the editor of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal newspapers. He also hosts a popular political program in Urdu, called Aapas ki Baat, on GEO News...
, the editor of Daily Times sharply rebukes General Beg for his past misadventures into the domain of politics in a recent editorial. He asks the former general to apologize for warning the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
off a large area of internal and external policy in 1988, and to apologize to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
for violating an agreed foreign policy decision to send Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia when Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
invaded Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
in 1990.
In the same article Sethi contends that General Aslam Beg should "apologise for bringing the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
in contempt when he admitted that he had influenced the chief justice to prevent the restoration of Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo
Muhammad Khan Junejo
Muhammad Khan Junejo was the tenth Prime Minister of Pakistan.-Early life:He was born at Sindhri in Tharparkar of Sindh. He belongs to Sindhi Muslim Rajput family of Junejo clan. Junejo started his political career at the age of twenty one...
. When confronted with challenging a general, the Supreme Court under Justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah
Muhammad Afzal Zullah
Mohammed Afzal Zullah was born on April 19, 1928, at Bijnial, Mandrah in district RAWALPINDI.He graduated in 1948 from Punjab University in Arts. In 1950 he received the degree in Law from Punjab University Lahore. He enrolled as a Pleader in 1950 and started practice at Sahiwal...
got cold feet and let General Beg go Scot free."
Founding Friends think-tank
After retirement General Beg founded a policy think-tank called Friends and the non-political Awami Qaiyadat Party (National Leadership Party) and continued to be a powerful part of Pakistan's ruling oligarchs. He also gave many interviews and appeared on some respectable channels posing as the political and military analyst, most recent being the appearance on PBS FRONTLINE/World's "Pakistan: On a Razor's Edge."Relations with President Musharraf
President General Pervez MusharrafPervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
served under both Beg and Gul, and apparently had high respect for them, but after September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, they gradually drifted apart. Their differences surfaced for the first time when in a press conference Musharraf spoke about the negative role of a few generals and called them "pseudo-intellectuals."
Later in January 2008, General Aslam Beg being part of Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society urged President Musharraf to voluntarily step down in the greater interests of Pakistan.