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| Liaquat Ali Khan
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
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Quaid-e-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on October 16th, 1951 at Company Bagh (Liaquat Bagh) in Rawalpindi. He will always enjoy a unique status as a founding father in the history of Pakistan. He was sovereign Prime Minister of Pakistan. He confronted the internal and external challenges courageously. Unfortunately, however, the character assassination of the trustworthy lieutenant of the Father of Nation, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, was constantly done by the vested interest. His excellent services, marvelous achievements and his glamorous period of four years, two months and two days is removed from the textbooks to keep young generation ignorant about his services to the nation as a sovereign Prime Minister.
The four beneficiaries of the Prime Minister's assassination, who ruled for a period of 20 years and two months from 17th October 1951 to 20th December 1971, had totally ignored the then Soviet Union. After a couple of years, a U2 reconnaissance plane (flown by Francis Gary Powers) was shot down by the Russians (soon after taking off from Peshawar Airbase) on 1st May 1960. It is an historical fact that Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was keen to visit Moscow but the invitation extended to him by the Soviet government could not materialize because the date of visit proposed by Moscow coincided with Pakistan's Independence Day the 14th August. However, Liaquat Ali Khan maintained an independent foreign policy & did not compromise on principles.
Coming to the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, it would be worth mentioning that the bullet removed from Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan by Colonel Dr Mian (later General Dr Mian) on 16th October 1951 were similar to the three bullet which were earlier removed from assassinated Iranian Prime Minister General Haj Ali Razmara on 7th March 1951. These were special bullets used by US officers and were never issued to Iranian or Pakistani Armed forces or police. The enquiry of Prime Minister's assassination was entrusted to inspector general of special police Aitezazuddin and after crash of his plane, the real conspirators later entrusted the inquiry of PM's assassination to highly incompetent and irresponsible Punjab Police who was already guilty of negligence in providing security to the Prime Minister and even handling the issue by killing the alleged assassin. The writer of this article happened to meet the police officer who shot five gun bullets on the alleged murderer Said Akbar in the Company Bagh on October 16th 1951. Some fellow students of Zamindar College of Gujrat accompanied me in the said meeting which was at his village in the District. Shah Mohammad did not answer seriously and was diplomatic in his language. We asked him as to why he shot at the alleged murderer of the Prime Minister when he was already in critical condition after receiving wound from the persons surrounded him at the venue of Rawalpindi public meeting. He told that the alleged murderer killed such a great leader that if he (police officer) had any other weapon, he would use that blindly on the mob. After some time, the police officer Shah Mohammad or Mohammad Shah was brutally murdered and his body was cut into small pieces near his house in the village. His killers came on horses along with a jeep car. This car plunged into a nearby canal and was taken out with the help of a crane. This whole incident proves that the forces behind the assassination of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan were influential and effective even in 1960.
The brief recording of the Company Bagh's public meeting is available on internet which reveals that as soon as Liaquat Ali Khan started his speech by saying "Bradaran-e-Millat" two shots were fired at him simultaneously which means that there were two persons who fired the bullets at a time on the prime minister. In case the shots were fired by a single person, there would have been a shot gap between the shots of the bullets. If we critically examine the statements of the witnesses gave to the Justice Munir Commission, we find contradictions in the evidence given by them. The Commission's Report reveals that Police officer Najaf Khan was standing behind the dice of the meeting. The recording of Radio
Pakistan available on the internet further shows that the two bullets were fired by Najaf Khan which were followed by frequent fire in the venue of the meeting which made it difficult to shift the injured prime minister immediately to the hospital. The entire game seems to be planned by the conspirators which were locals but sponsored by foreigners. The names of Malik Ghulam Muhammad, Nawab Mushtaq Gurmani, Iskandar Mirza and even Ayub Khan cannot be ruled out in view of the aftermath circumstances developed as a result of the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan. Later on, the body of the Quaid-e-Millat was brought to the federal capital Karachi in the aeroplane of the Governor General whereas Khwaja Nazimuddin used another plane to travel to Karachi. His plane reached Karachi an hour later than that of the plane carrying Liaquat's body. The pilot of the plane carrying the Governor General wrote in his memoirs that he waited for a considerable time - more than an hour - to leave the plane because Khwaja Nazimuddin remained in the plane. The then Secretary General of Government of Pakistan Chaudhry Mohammad Ali entered in Khwaja Sahab's plane and stayed with him. It is apparent that the Secretary General would have been convincing Khwaja Nazimuddin to quit the office of the Governor General and become the successor of Liaquat Ali Khan in the office of the Prime Minister.
Why Liaquat was assassinated because he made a master plan for boosting agriculture, gaining self-sufficiency in food, cotton, sugarcane, fruits, exploring mineral resources, petroleum, enhancing agriculture by improving irrigation network, canals, dams for storage of water and generation of hydroelectric power, self sufficiency in weaponry and industrialization.
Let us now talk about the Rawalpindi conspiracy. Like the Arabian Nights or Alif Laila it can be called the Rawalpindi conspiracy 1951 which was planned on Dinner Nights extending over a period of about thousand nights but for one reason or the other it could not be put into practice. It is strange that the intelligence agencies, Defense Secretary and C-in-C were ignorant about the alleged conspiracy under process for two and a half years.
It is just like a fairy tale that Akbar Khan conspires without a gun, tank, brigade or division. Only eleven officers were going to do some miracles with four civilians including his wife.
There are sufficient reasons to believe that there had been a real conspiracy behind this alleged conspiracy and the objectives of the real conspirators was to create a gap and ill will between the civil and military leadership. The other objective was to destabilize the state and the popular government of Pakistan headed by the Quaid-e-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan in order to serve the designs of their foreign masters. Major General Akbar Khan was a popular figure in Royal Pakistan Army and therefore the then C-in-C Ayub Khan and Secretary Defense Iskandar Mirza avoided the Court Martial of the alleged conspirators and preferred to put the Rawalpindi conspiracy case to the civil judicial tribunal for judgement. The conspiracy was discovered around 23rd February 1951, the case was started in the tribunal in June 1951 and decided in 1953. The prosecution side took a lengthy course which was time consuming and the aim behind this process was to strengthen the position of General Muhammad Ayub Khan as the commander in Chief because his out of turn promotion was on account of the blessings of Iskandar Mirza. Another object of this lengthy trial in the civil tribunal was to hurt the popularity and reputation of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and his government. It would be pertinent to note that the SOP applicable in the civil service was the legacy of British Colonial rule. It is still in vogue. According to the process the note was used to be routed through the secretary of the concerned ministry and therefore the case of the promotion and appointment of native commander in chief of Pakistan Army was routed through Iskandar Mirza who did full favor to him.
