SACKED National Security Advisor Maj-Gen (retd) Mehmud Ali Durrani believes he has not violated any official rule when he publicly identified the lone surviving suspect of the Mumbai attacks as a Pakistani, which led to his dismissal. He gave in detail his side of the story in an interview with this correspondent at the Golf Road, Rawalpindi, the first-ever to any print or electronic media outlet. Durrani said Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani probably felt left out to take a decision. “The prime minister has every right and authority to send me home, but the way he did it, was not nice, although he is a fine gentleman. I wish him success,” Durrani said. “The way I was sacked, I was painted as if I had committed a grave crime.” He says the decision to reveal the nationality of the suspect as a Pakistani was decided at the highest level. The president, in consultation with the premier security agencies, believed it was in the national interest of Pakistan to admit Kasab's nationality before others started harping on it and leave Islamabad with no choice but to own up. He said principal security organizations had briefed the president about Kasab's nationality before he talked about it. Durrani said when he was removed on Jan. 27, he approached the prime minister's office to talk to Gilani but received no response. Through an official letter issued on the directive of the prime minister in December, it was decided that only the national security advisor, the foreign minister and the information minister have the authorization to speak on the developing situation in line with Mumbai attacks. “Like others, I was also authorized to talk about the issue, as decided at the highest level. I often consulted with Information Minister Sherry Rehman in this connection,” he said. The former adviser said Zardari phoned him and regretted his dismissal. He would not say, but according to a report, the president, during the telephonic conversation, apologized twice to Durrani. About 10 days before his termination, Durrani said, an Indian TV channel had asked him to comment on a report that Pakistan's foreign office has confirmed Kasab's nationality. He replied that it might be correct. According to Durrani, it was late Benazir Bhutto's decision to appoint him as national security advisor. The United States and India have such offices, and Australia is in the process of introducing one. In February 2007, Durrani recalled, a Pakistani-American couple, Shaista and Riffat Mehmood, invited Bhutto to a lunch in Washington. The couple, he said, also requested him to attend. He sought permission from then President Pervez Musharraf, as per protocol, who allowed him to do so. “Should I address you as general or as ambassador?” he remembered Bhutto asking him on that occassion. “I am the same man, you can address me as you like,” he told her. He said Benazir criticized Pervez Musharraf while he defended him. “There she told me,” Durrani said. “'Be my national security advisor.'” The host told Bhutto in a lighter vein, “Bibi first you should become prime minister and then appoint Durrani as advisor.” Durrani said in March 2008 after the last general elections and before the formation of the present government his staff in the ambassador's office in Washington received a call from Asif Zardari's aides, who said the chief wants to talk to him. “Zardari told me during a telephone conversation that ‘I want to fulfil Bibi Saheba's promise to make you the national security advisor; so you should come back,” Durrani recalled, adding he had to rush to Islamabad within two days. He said he told Zardari that he would talk to Musharraf to which the PPP chief said, “you must.” Giving that background, he said that a few days after General Ziaul Haq's plane crash in August 1988 and before the forthcoming general elections, two PPP leaders, Sardar Asseff Ahmed Ali and Khawaja Tariq Rahim (KTR), met him in Lahore where he stayed with a relative. At the time he was General Officer Commanding (GOC), Multan. He said KTR and Asseff Ahmed wanted him to arrange their meeting with then ISI chief Lt-Gen Hamid Gul as they wanted to deliver the message of two Bibis (Benazir Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto) to the Pakistan army that they were not against the military and desired a fair play in the upcoming parliamentary polls. He said he contacted Hamid Gul but no meeting could take place because of the ISI chief's preoccupations. Later, Durrani said the two PPP leaders kept meeting him, off and on. When no meeting with Hamid Gul could materialize, they asked him to arrange a session with then army chief, General Mirza Aslam Beg. He said adding that he communicated the message to the chief, who agreed to the proposed meeting. He said Beg told them that the PPP would have level playing field in the elections but it should not join hands with the anti-Pakistan forces in the polls. He said that during her second stint as prime minister, Bhutto stayed in his office for three hours for a briefing when he was chairman of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Wah. Durrani said he has no remorse or regrets over losing the job, but he was anguished over the way he has been portrayed. He said he has an impeccable reputation when he served in the army or civil office in every respect. “My integrity has always been above board. Whatever I did, I did for Pakistan and I will keep doing so in future as well.” The former national secukrity advisor said the government could find a much better person as his replacement. “I wish the government to succeed and serve the country. Our national interest lies in this. Even as an ordinary citizen, I am ready to help and assist it,” he said. He said it was his strong commitment to have peace with India and he has worked for it in the past and would continue to do so. Asked about name-calling him like CIA agent, Washington's man in Islamabad etc., Durrani said he was hurt at such insults because his loyalty to Pakistan is beyond any shadow of doubt. However, he believed that Pakistan must have excellent relations with the United States, it being the sole superpower. “On my own, I worked hard to make my place for Pakistan in the influential American think-tanks and the US Administration to bring about good relations between Islamabad and Washington,” he said. Durrani said such relations were in the best interest of Pakistan. But at the same time, he said, while he was a strong advocate and campaigner for such ties, he was not a chamcha (lackey) of America and hates to be called so. “My loyalty is with Pakistan, not with the United States or India,” he emphasized. He said that at one time when the question of defending Pakistan came, some American officials told the Bush Administration that Durrani was not a problem solver, but part of the problem. He said that when a ground offensive was launched by the Americans in a tribal area a few months back from Afghanistan, he criticized the action during his televsion appearances, stating publicly that America's decision to invade Iraq was bad. “You want to make us a fall guy for your failures and blame us unnecessarily,” he recalled having said. Asked about his future plans, Durrani said he wanted to relax for the moment. During the two-hour interview, he gave no signs of any despair or disappointment for losing the job, but he was highly perturbed over what he said were abuses being heaped on him by some people. He said if he started talking about these people they would have no place to hide. Since his dismissal, Durrani has been receiving a number of messages, praising him. A former woman American ambassador to Islamabad emailed him, what an incredibly sad day for Pakistan! Please know that your family and friends and all of us who admire what you have done for Pakistan are behind you. An American scholar, Daniel Markey, wrote, “I am very troubled to hear this latest news. I fear it says a lot about the decision-making in Islamabad, especially during a time of crisis. I hope others recognize the injustice of the decision as well as the ways in which it further undermines this government's capacity.” Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote, “You stood up for what was right and true. What you said indeed had to be said. Pakistan salutes you.”
