Recently Lt Gen [retd] Imtiaz Hussain apparently killed himself. The
link below, however, informs us that a certain Dr Shafiq ur Rehman has
lodged a petition in the Apex Court to charge Malik Riaz Hussain for
the murder of the General.
At first blush, the doctor’s petition appears to be the action of a
fevered mind bent upon heaping ignominy on a person, who does not need
any outside help to add to his already formidable and justifiable
claims to infamy, as the country’s corrupter par excellence. And
though there can be little doubt that the general’s death was the
result of suicide, there is his connection with Malik Riaz Hussain
that could possibly have hurried him towards this end.
Malik Sahib is a man of great vision, energy, ambition, deceit,
mendacity, utter ruthlessness, and sheer nerve. He has had huge
success, made huge money, which entailed huge infringements of the
law, against which he immunized himself by giving out huge bribes. And
he bribed the high and the low, the holy and the not so holy, the
politicians and the bureaucrats, and the judges and the military. He
is the fairest man in the illegal distribution of largesse that ever
lived; and also the politest–a most felicitous confluence of
hypocrisy and sycophancy.
His operating principle has been to play Robin Hood in reverse i.e to
gouge from his investors and pay off the elites. And without these
elites, both civil and military, so utterly bereft of moral sense or
spine, such great ‘success’, as Malik Sahib’s, would be unthinkable.
Reportedly one of his more notable ‘successes’ in subversion was the
late general, who became a crucial and necessary factor in the making
of, perhaps, the biggest potential scandal in the army. A while ago,
an email purportedly written by Lt Col [retd] Tariq Kamal, an
ex-Director Engineering of DHA was doing the rounds. This sought to
expose a DHA-Bahria contract which is a scam of mammoth proportions.
According to the Colonel’s computation, Malik Sahib enriched himself
by about Rs sixty billion as a result of this contract, and some of
these pickings were generously distributed by him among those who
facilitated his theft, one of the beneficiaries being the late
general.
Initially DHA Islamabad hired Malik Sahib’s services for land
acquisition. Malik Sahib being the head land mafiosi of the country,
this selection must be considered to have been made on merit.
Generally he was buying land at between Rs 20,000 and 50,000 per
kanal, and palming it off to the army at between Rs 300,000 to 500,000
per kanal.
A huge amount of money was made in this operation, and a lot of it
went around to sully many a well starched uniform. But that was not
all. DHA was intent on making further “progress”. It then signed a
contract with Malik Riaz to develop some of the land which Malik Sahib
had helped it acquire. The development charges for this operation were
being paid by thousands of allotees, who were mostly middle ranking
army officers and civilians of like financial standing. Under terms of
this contract, the DHA was obliged to transfer all monies received on
account of this development to Malik Riaz’s coffers with 24 hours of
receipt of the same. This would have been fine, assuming that the
money was being used for the purposes for which it was intended. But
this was not the case. These funds were actually being used for
everything but their assigned purpose. They were being used to acquire
more land for Bahria Town [ i.e Malik Riaz], to buy properties abroad,
and for further facilitation and hushing up the improprieties being
committed by the man. All stirrings of protest were being regularly
squelched by the army high ups, and indeed none of these found a
sympathetic ear. Lt Col Tariq Kamal’s was the very first protest which
eventually broke through the surface. But the scandal was known
earlier, though seldom talked about.
General Imtiaz was the Adjutant General of the Army, and thus the
ultimate boss of DHA Islamabad, when this infamous contract was
signed. It was also well known then that he was also its penultimate
beneficiary–the ultimate one being the great Malik himself!
After his retirement from the army he was rewarded with the
stewardship of the Army Welfare Trust. And it was after his retirement
from there that he came home and found the time and the leisure to
fall into a depression which eventually drove him into suicide. There
is a good body of opinion which feels that his depression was the
brought on by fear of the chickens coming home to roost, as it is
reasonable to assume they must.
So, between the death of General Imtiaz and Malik Riaz Hussain there
may well be an intimate connection. And few connections are more
intimate than those between give and take.
But the stakes now have become considerably higher. Malik Riaz
Hussain’s attempt to subvert and compromise the Chief Justice of
Pakistan through his son, was his final throw of the dice to bring
down Pakistan’s last bastion. Whether he just reached moat, or the
bastion itself, remains a matter of conjecture. However this should
be, this development is likely to pitch the government against the
Supreme Court once again, for Malik Riaz Hussain was always the point
man of the government.
This time again matters will so transpire that the Supreme Court will
look to the army as its constitutional enforcer of last resort. The
army will once more have to decide whether it will make its stand for
Pakistan or Zardari, since a Supreme Court order, right or wrong, is
the highest edict of the state. The choice therefore should not be a
difficult one, or one which even admits of discretion. But there are
reasons to believe that in the past four years the Supreme Court has
twice sounded out the army on similar issues, only to be turned down
both times. The result is that the country is now tottering on the
brink. A third refusal by the army will take Pakistan beyond the
brink, and with it the generals and the army.
Naked theft can only masquerade as democracy just so long, and no more.
http://www.aaj.tv/2012/06/bahria-town-owner-malik-riaz-accused-of-murder/
