Coup and counter-coup
Musharraf overthrew Sharif on October 12, 1999 shortly after the governmenttried to sack him as army chief and refused to permit a plane bringing theGeneral from Sri Lanka to land in Karachi:
It was October 12, 1999. The time was 6:45 pm. The flight was PK 805. Theplane was an Airbus. There were 198 passengers on board, many of them schoolchildren. We were due to land in 10 minutes.
'Sir, I think that it has something to do with you,' he said,stating what now seemed fairly obvious.
I knew he was right, but why would they not let a commercial flight land inKarachi or anywhere else in the country? I could only guess that Prime MinisterSharif was moving against me.
I told him to ask Air Traffic Control again why they were not permitting usto land considering our precarious fuel situation.
The reply, 'Climb to 21,000 feet and just get out of Pakistan and goanywhere.'
Again they refused to give any reason. Air Traffic Control suggested we headto Bombay, Oman in Muscat, Abu Dhabi, or Bandar Abbas in Iran, just aboutanywhere except (for some reason) Dubai.
They also informed our pilot that they had directed all airports not to letour plane anywhere in Pakistan.
No one below the Prime Minister could give such a drastic order. Sacking anArmy Chief is one thing; but hijacking his plane and sending it to India isdiabolical."
Former PM Nawaz Sharif's move to dismiss Musharraf as army chief, he says inthe book, was a"coup" that prompted the military to assume power in October 1999.
"His (Sharif's) was the coup. It was gross misuse and misappropriationof law, you cannot summarily dismiss the army chief, a constitutional appointee,without giving him just cause and affording due process.
Sharif intended to it to be the final act before he assumed all power in theoffice of the Prime Minister. The army's response was counter-coup.
The counter-coup -- for there can be no other words for it -- began at5 pm when the news of my removal was announced on TV and took only three andhalf hours. It would be by 8.30 pm when Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed, commander of theRawalpindi Corps, entered Prime Minister's House and took Nawaz Sharif intocustody."
I have no compunction about admitting that the army was caught unawaresby the Prime Minister's sudden action of dismissing me and following it upvirtually simultaneously with sudden and abrupt changes in the military highcommand."
Prime Minister NawazSharif had asked his Military Secretary to issue a notification stating GeneralMusharraf's dismissal and Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt's appointment as thenew Army Chief — he took it personally to the President after signing it,despite advice to the contrary from his Military Secretary. Musharraf saysthe Pakistan armyrallied behind him once his ouster and the PM's moves got to be known. They tookover Lahoreby 7:30 pm. Major General Malik Iftikhar Ali Khan, the commander of an army division inKarachi, was the one who made radio contact with the aircraft: "Tell the chief to come back and land inKarachi. Everything is alright now."
Aziz Khan, Mahmood and Shaid Aziz had not the slightest doubt that Sharif's coup had to be thwarted. Enough was enough, theywould lead the counter coup. Enough was enough, they would lead the counter coup.
Lieutenant General Shahid Ali entered the private area of the house andplaced everyone, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, under arrest.
Has martial law been declared, said Nawaz Sharif plaintively. Shahid Ali saidthat he did not know. Nawaz Sharif looked dazed.
By 7:45 pm, the counter coup had defeated Nawaz Sharif's coup throughout thecountry. My plane landed in Karachi by 7:48 pm.
Back in corps headquarters in Karachi, we were somewhat dazed. We decided notto do anything precipitate. What was needed first and foremost was to reassure abewildered nation, but without making any rash promises until we had understoodwhat we got into.
I started writing my speech by hand. When it was complete and met theapproval of those present, I borrowed a flak jacket from an SSG commando, for Iwas in civilian clothes.
The table hid my trousers as I spoke to my people at the unearthly hour of2:30 am. As I reached the end of my speech, the thought came to me: 'Whathave I landed into?'
Before Musharraf travelled to Sri Lanka, Sharif, he says, "carefullycultivated" him to provide an impression that he had patched up with himafter months of tension over the Kargil issue.
Despite the rapprochement, Musharraf writes:
"He was waiting for the right time to strike. I am inclined to believe from the evidence I gathered. The right time was when I would be completely inaccessible to the army and thus unable to lead it, flying at 35000 ft in foreign airspace."
But Sharif handled the coup in a
"clumsy and reckless manner; not allowing my plane to land, nearly letting it crash and even suggesting that it go to India".
When the pilot informed authorities on the ground that he was low on fuel andcould not go to Muscat,
"the DGCA asked his air traffic controller an amazing question: could my plane go to Bombay? I have seen idiots and more idiots. But this question was beyond my belief. The controller replied in the negative.
When Nawaz Sharif is sending my aircraft to India was he not committing treason?"
he says, citing a Supreme Court judgement which said as the army chief,Musharraf held a constitutional post and his removal was "void and no legaleffect".
He says he was lucky his plane was unexpectedly delayed in Colombo and Male.
"Had my plane arrived on schedule, the army would not have had enough time to react and take Karachi airport to prevent my arrest."
Sharif's loyalists in the army too offered resistance, he says.
"More than once, officers and soldiers of the counter-coup came eyeball to eyeball with the armed personnel of the coup. It is only by the presence of mind and the grace of God that a bloodbath was averted."
