A column of anchor Javed Chaudhry, a well-known columnist, is being widely discussed in the print, electronic and social media. Javed Chaudhry had written columns regarding the meeting with General Bajwa before, in which the position of General Bajwa was explained. Now, in his last day’s column (February 9), Javed Chaudhry has made revelations again, and from this column, it is understood that General Bajwa accepted his responsibility regarding the change of the Imran Khan government and the justification for this is he called it necessary in the country’s interest.
Javed Chaudhry’s column is still ongoing, the second part will come in the next day or two, so it will be easy to comment on it in detail.
Today we review an article by another prominent journalist Hamid Mir which was published last month i.e. January 9th in a leading Indian magazine India Today, its title is: “Dirty Game, Untold Story of Imran Khan and General Bajwa”. Love hate relationship.
It should be remembered that Hamid Mir became famous as an anti-establishment journalist in the past few years, but nowadays he has a cordial relationship with the establishment, one proof of this is the meetings of General Bajwa with him and the other is the PDM government. is openly supporting and his article printed in the Indian journal is strongly anti-Imran, in which Mir sahib openly shot arrows at Imran Khan and called him a “loser”.
Hamid Mir started his article by saying that “Imran Khan is not reading inscriptions on the wall, he is fighting a losing battle against General Retired Bajwa.” They are fighting a man who has nothing to lose. General Bajwa is now a retired army officer who cannot become the prime minister while Imran Khan is a politician who can become the prime minister again.”
In the same opening paragraph of the article, Hamid Mir again raised these questions, “Why is Imran Khan making allegations against a person who is accused of making Imran Khan the prime minister in 2018?” Do they want to blackmail the current army chief by targeting General Bajwa? Will Imran Khan avoid arrest for incompetence and targeting the country’s most powerful institution?”
Hamid Mir further writes “I know Imran Khan since 1989. He always believed that aggression is the best defense in cricket. I dissuaded him from entering politics in 1995 and advised him to focus on social services. I was worried that Imran’s playboy image and his illegitimate children would become a hindrance to his politics. But Imran Khan joined politics and started throwing bouncers at his opponents and now he is using his bouncers against Pakistan Army.”
After making several critical attacks on Imran Khan, including taunting him for being ungrateful for General Bajwa’s “services”, Hamid Mir revealed that General Bajwa had given some important information against Imran Khan in the past few years about his politics and some media friends leaked and presented their case that Imran Khan’s critical attacks actually show his ungrateful heart. General Bajwa gave exclusive information to a columnist (probably referring to Javed Chaudhry) and said that he saved Imran Khan from being disqualified by the court in 2017.
According to Hamid Mir, he remembers that a few weeks before the 2018 elections, Imran Khan criticized Nawaz Sharif on his TV show and said that he is a product of the army. When this interview went on air, General Bajwa called him. When he reached there, he saw that Saleem Saafi was already there. Saafi was telling General Bajwa that he has decided to bring Imran Khan to the Prime Minister House. Saafi said to him remember his words that he [Khan] will not only betray him but also stab in the back. To this, General Bajwa responded by lecturing Saleem Saafi on journalistic ethics and advised him to forget his personal differences with Imran Khan. According to Hamid Mir, he listened to the conversation quietly and did not intervene.
Further, Hamid Mir writes that “When Saleem Saafi left, General Bajwa told him that Imran Khan accused Nawaz Sharif of taking patronage of the army and agencies in his talk show. Please advise Imran Khan not to say such things because after this interview I (General Bajwa) was told by many people that Imran Khan is in bad company and cannot be trusted,” Hamid Mir was quoted. That he respectfully replied to General Bajwa that he is a journalist, not an adviser to Imran Khan (to give him any advice). General Bajwa laughed at him and said, “You are his old friend, give him this advice in your personal capacity.”
Hamid Mir then wrote that despite all the support of General Bajwa and institutions in the election, Imran Khan could not get a majority and he had to become the prime minister with the independent members of the assembly in Tehreek-e-Insaf. Hamid Mir wrote an interesting sentence here that General Bajwa did not consider Prime Minister Imran Khan as his “boss”. General Bajwa expressed his dislike for the Chief Ministers nominated by Tehreek-e-Insaf for Punjab and KP. He wanted to bring his favorite people to these positions, but Imran Khan refused to oblige. According to Hamid Mir, General Bajwa called him in 2019 and said that he must meet Imran Khan and ask him to replace Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. Hamid Mir said that he once again offended General Bajwa by saying that he is a journalist, it is not his job.
Hamid Mir said in this article that General Bajwa always wanted to establish cordial relations with India. When Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the Prime Minister, with his permission, General Bajwa started a series of back-channel diplomacy. However, the Pulwama incident, the Indian air strike and then the downing of the Indian plane and the arrest and release of Abhinandan, then India ended the special status of Kashmir in August 2019 and then Imran Khan started comparing Narendra Modi with the famous Nazi leader Hitler derailed everything.
Going forward, Hamid Mir made an important revelation. He writes, “According to General Bajwa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to visit Pakistan on April 9, 2021. General Bajwa claimed that Narendra Modi was ready to join the annual four-day celebrations of Hinglaj Mata Mandir in the Pakistani city of Lasbela.
“General Faiz Hameed met Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Deol in a Gulf city and both agreed to open mutual trade relations and cricket links. A principled decision to start trade with India was also made, but Imran Khan’s cabinet rejected this decision. According to Hamid Mir, General Bajwa claimed that both sides (Pakistan and India) agreed to freeze Kashmir for twenty years. Imran Khan also wanted to establish relations, but he advised him to slow down. Actually, Imran Khan wanted to win the election (July 2019) in Azad Kashmir. According to General Bajwa, Imran Khan was misguided by his Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was afraid of criticism in the media. “
In the next paragraph, Hamid Mir narrates his personal experience and writes that shortly before his retirement, General Bajwa exploded at an event that the Pakistani media was an obstacle to a breakthrough in the restoration of Pakistan-India relations. According to General Bajwa, whenever relations start to improve, some people in the media accuse the government of selling Kashmir to the enemy. Hamid Mir made another important revelation here that General Bajwa wanted to engage Israel as well, but Imran Khan remained hesitant.
Another interesting revelation by Hamid Mir is about General Bajwa’s role in the no-confidence motion. Earlier, Hamid Mir wrote that the appointment of DGISI was the major event after which the two figures (Imran, General Bajwa) became distrustful and hence the army decided to stay away from politics. Hamid Mir writes that on the occasion of the no-confidence motion, Imran Khan asked General Bajwa to meet his political opponents and ask them to withdraw the motion. Hamid Mir wrote (somewhat innocently) that General Bajwa had several meetings with Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari and requested them to withdraw the no-confidence motion, but they refused.
Hamid Mir made an important revelation in the next line. According to Mir Sahib, General Bajwa finally decided to sabotage Shehbaz Sharif’s plan in Punjab and asked his ally Chaudhry Pervez Elahi to join hands with Imran Khan. This is the reason why Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was unhappy with Imran Khan’s criticism of General Bajwa. “
(Hamid Mir wrote in great detail in the article published in Indian Journal, but some of these points were also stated by Hamid Mir in his column in Jang. They were not refuted by General Retired Bajwa.)
Three or four interesting results are obtained from this long article by Hamid Mir.
They say that the establishment or General Bajwa wanted to establish good relations and resume trade with India even after the abrogation of Article 370, they were ready to freeze Kashmir for twenty years, but Imran Khan don’t let that happen.
Imran Khan did this on the advice of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who feared that doing so would be heavily criticized in the media. (Those who consider Shah Mehmood Qureshi to be a pillar of the establishment should consider this).
General Qamar Javed Bajwa also wanted to involve Israel, but Imran Khan remained reluctant. (For those circles who accuse Imran Khan of being pro-Israel and claim that he wanted to recognize Israel, this revelation will come as a surprise).
Hamid Mir claims that at the request of Prime Minister Imran Khan, General Bajwa met Shehbaz Sharif and Zardari several times and asked them to withdraw the no-confidence motion, but they refused. General Bajwa, in anger, spoiled Shahbaz Sharif’s game in Punjab and sent Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to Imran Khan. (If you want, you can raise the question of whether Shahbaz Sharif also has the power to refuse the army chief?)
An interesting revelation also comes out that when Jio was apparently the preferred channel in the eyes of the establishment, its two prominent journalists Hamid Mir and Saleem Safi not only met the Army Chief but also had exclusive inside conversations with him.
