Asif Nawaz
Asif Nawaz (
Asif Nawaz Janjua) was Chief of Army Staff,
Pakistan (1991–1993)
Asif Nawaz's tenure as Chief of Army Staff was ended abruptly by his death on
8 January 1993, apparently from a heart attack. He is widely remembered as having died under mysterious circumstances.
Nawaz had begun to feel upset at many of
Nawaz Sharif's moves, most significantly his attempts to create rifts within the Army. American CIA was also unhappy with the lack of co-operation from the General regarding the buying back of the stinger missiles from the mujahddeen in Afghanistan, supplied by the CIA during the Jihad against the Soviets. It is thought that the current Assistant Sec. for South Asia, Christina Rocca, played a major role in the removal of the General. Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad and Brigadier Imtiaz, the former ISI chief, were even accused by the late General of threatening to turn him into another
Gul Hassan Khan, the army chief who was sacked by
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, bundled into a car by
Ghulam Mustafa Khar, and taken to
Lahore by road. It is said (without much proof though) that just when General
Mirza Aslam Beg was about to topple Sharif at the end of his tenure in 1991, President
Ghulam Ishaq Khan agreed to name Nawaz as the new COAS on
16 August 1991, exactly three months before he was to take office as Chief of Army Staff.
The untimely demise of Nawaz fuelled much controversy, with First Information Reports being filed against Brigadier (retd) Imtiaz, the Director of the Intelligence Bureau (DIB). The issue gathered momentum following his widow Nuzhat Janjua's formal complaint to the then President
Ghulam Ishaq Khan about the unnatural circumstances surrounding her husband's death.
She clearly stated her strong suspicions that her husband had been murdered, based on the fact that he had previously told her about threats to his life. There had also been anonymous letters, which had warned the general about threats to his life. Apparently the General and the DIB had developed some serious differences in their relationship.
There are essentially two arguments for and against the conspiracy theories regarding the death. Most arguments tend to support a conspiracy theory involving the general's death. It should also be noted, however, that one element goes against the conspiracy theory; this is the fact that General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq had eliminated the need for Lt. Generals to undergo medical check-ups. Given this, the state of the general's health remains a grey area, and his death, though untimely, could be attributed to a heart attack.
Nuzhat Janjua suspected that her late husband had been poisoned by arsenic administered in a cup of tea served to him at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee meeting. Some political commentators have also pointed out that his widow must have made the formal complaint on the basis of some strong grounds, and that the bereaved lady would not make such an attempt for political purposes. Interestingly the government posted a police guard at the general's grave in order to ensure that the body was not exhumed for medical inspection. There were rumours that the general's stomach was removed prior to the burial to avoid possible detection of foul play.
The issue snowballed in April 1993 as the Army adopted an open-minded approach to the possibility of foul play behind the general's death. Subsequent medical investigations,however, showed that the general had died of a heart attack.
