Mirza Aslam Beg (born 15 February 1928), also known as M. A. Beg, is a retired Pakistani four-star rank general who served as the third Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 1988 until his retirement in 1991. His appointment as chief of army staff came when his predecessor, President General Zia-ul-Haq, died in an air crash on 17 August 1988.
Beg's tenure witnessed Benazir Bhutto being elected Prime Minister in November 1988, and the restoration of democracy and the civilian control of the military in the country. Beg financed the Islamic Democracy Alliance (IDA), the conservative and right-wing opposition alliance against left-wing PPP, and rigged the general elections in 1990 in favor of Nawaz Sharif. As a result, Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister in 1990, but fell out with Beg when the latter recommended support for Iraq during the Gulf War. Beg was denied an extension from President Ghulam Ishaq Khan soon after in 1991, and replaced by General Asif Nawaz as chief of army staff. Apart from his military career, Beg briefly tenured as professor of security studies at the National Defence University (NDU) and regularly writes columns in The Nation.
Post-retirement, Beg has been mired in controversies. In 2012, Ijaz-ul-Haq, the son of General Zia-ul-Haq accused Beg of being responsible for the airplane crash that killed President Zia.
In 1996, Asghar Khan filed a human rights petition alleging that former Pakistan Army Chief General Beg and Pakistani ISI Chief Asad Durrani, under President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, established an election cell to manipulate the 1990 Pakistani general election in favor of Nawaz Sharif by purchasing politicians' loyalties. Nearly 16 years later, Durrani finally admitted his role in a 2012 affidavit to the Supreme Court of Pakistan and stated that he had been ordered by Beg to disburse money to rivals of Benazir Bhutto's party. The ISI disbursed Rs140 million for this purpose using funds from the foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan, through Mehranbank CEO Younus Habib. In 2012, Habib stated that the money had been arranged at the behest of Ghulam Ishaq Khan and General Beg, in his affidavit to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Despite these revelations, no significant legal consequences have followed and Beg had continued to defy court orders.
Early life in India and education
Mirza Aslam Beg was born in the small village, Muslimpatti, in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh in British India, to the Urdu speaking Muhajir family of eleven children (eight sons, three daughters) that was well known for its Mughal nobility, on 15 February 1928.
His father, Mirza Murtaza Beg, was an advocate and practicing lawyer who had held a well known prestige and respected name in the law circles of the Allahabad High Court. The Baig's family had traced a long ancestral roots of the Mughal royal family who once were emperors of India from the early 15th century to the early 18th century.
He was educated at the Azamgarh where he graduated from a local high school and enrolled at the Shibli National College, Azamgarh for his undergraduate studies, in 1945. Subsequently, he earned Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Liberal Arts from Shibli National College in 1949.
In 1952, he gained a commission as 2Lt. in the 6 Baloch Regiment of the Pakistan Army and initially assisted the command of an infantry platoon.
After attending the Armed Forces War College and graduated with MSc in Strategic studies in 1971, Lt.Col. Beg was stationed in East-Pakistan to serve as a military adviser to the Eastern Command led by its GOC-in-C, Lieutenant-General A.A.K. Niazi. Lt. Col. Beg left the special forces, and accepted the professorship on war studies at the NDU in 1975.
About the 1971 war, Beg maintained that the Pakistan Armed Forces "learned a valuable strategic lesson", and that quoted that the government also learned that "there is no point in going to war unless you are absolutely certain you have the capability to win".
From 1994 to 1999, Beg continued his teaching at NDU and published his two books on national security, nuclear weapons development, defence diplomacy and international relations.
War and Command appointments
In 1978, Brig. Beg left the professorship at the university and was promoted into the two-star command appointment in the army. Major-General Beg was appointed as the GOC of the 14th Army Division, stationed at the Okara Military District of Punjab Province in Pakistan.
In 1985, Major-General Beg was elevated to three-star promotion and was appointed as Corp's Commander of the XI Corps, that stationed in Peshawar, which had role in the indirect war with the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, since 1980.
According to the military authors and Pakistani historians' accounts, Lieutenant-General Beg was extremely distrusted by President Zia-ul-Haq, mainly due to his open-mindedness and his pro-democracy views, at one point, advising President Zia to "rendezvous with the nation's history and democratize the country."
In 1987, Lieutenant-General Beg was in the race for the promotion of four-star appointment, along with Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar, but was overlooked by President Zia who wanted to Lt.Gen. Akbar for the four-star appointment as chief of army staff.
Though, General Beg did not supersede anyone and was the most senior, the promotion was notable due to the opposition shown by President Zia-ul-Haq who wanted Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar, an engineer, as vice army chief. Eventually, General Beg succeeded President Zia as the new army chief and the command of the army when the latter died in an accidental plane crash on 17 August 1988. American military authors regarded Beg as "mild but bookish general" keen to drive the country towards the tracks of democracy.
The United States military regarded Beg as an "Unpredictable General" Beg did not consult any of his corps commanders or principal staff officers (PSOs) and called on the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Iftikhar Sirohey, and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Hakimullah, to discuss the matter briefly and within three hours of General Zia-ul-Haq's death, restored the Constitution and handed over power to Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
Mirza Aslam Beg was endorsed by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who confirmed his four-star appointment as chief of army staff until 1991, when he was replaced by General Asif Nawaz. In 1988, Beg's personal initiatives led to sending of hundreds of inter-services officers to Western universities for advanced degrees. In fact, Beg is the only one in Pakistan, and yet the only four-star army general to have been decorated with such an honour. Various writers greatly questioned his idea of "strategic depth", which aim to transfer of Pakistan's military science command in dense Afghanistan, against the war with India.
Beg endorsed the role of his deputy, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul in Afghanistan war who masterminded the Jalalabad operation which failed brutally; Gul was deposed by Prime Minister Bhutto soon after this action. Beg's role remained vital during and after the Soviet Union's troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and showed no intention to coordinate joint efforts with the U.S. to end the war in the country. In late 1989, Pakistan and U.S. propagated the message of departing of communist government in order to bring the clerical government instead.
The Iraq war with Kuwait was a polarizing political issue in Pakistan and Beg carefully commanded and deployed the Pakistan Armed Forces' contingent forces during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Beg calculated that the popular opinion would be in favor of Iraq, as the anti-American sentiment in the Middle East began to grow at that time.
Post-military career
After failing to persuade the government for his extension, Beg's later political ambitions forced then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan to nominate General Asif Nawaz as the designated chief of army staff three months prior to his retirement.
Funding of conservative politicians
Soon after retiring from his military service in 1991, Beg earned the public criticism when the Pakistan Peoples Party's politicians went on aired on several news channels of being charged on personally authorizing the intelligence funds to be released to the conservative politicians. In 2017, the second lawsuit filed against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has connected him when Just. Gulzar, in his final verdict, reads:
Nuclear proliferation controversy
Internationally, Beg was widely criticised for his alleged involvement with the nuclear program of Iran. A report in The Friday Times contends that after taking over as Chief of Army Staff, General Aslam Beg began lobbying about "such cooperation with Iran" on nuclear technology as a part of his "strategy of defiance" of the United States. As chief of army staff, Beg had initiated lectureship programs on physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering for inter-services officers, by the Pakistani scientists serving their professors, to have better understanding on nuclear policy matters and policy development.
In 2005 interview to NBC, Beg defended his and A.Q. Khan's ground and maintained to the NBC that "Nuclear Proliferators can't be stopped." Beg added that the Americans and Europeans have been engaged in nuclear proliferation as part of a concept, called "outsourcing nuclear capability", to friendly countries as a measure of defense against nuclear strike. Beg pointed out that the "nuclear non-proliferation regime, therefore, is dying its natural death at the hands of those who are the exponents of the nuclear non-proliferation regime". At this point, without a green signal from President Zia-ul-Haq, Beg got acquainted with Dr. A.Q. Khan to secretly proliferate the technology crucial to master the nuclear fuel.
On 1 December 2012, President Zia's son Ijaz-ul-Haq maintained that it was Beg who was conspired behind the death of his father.
Political activism
Upon returning to civilian life, General Beg founded and established a policy think-tank institute in Islamabad, known as Foundation for Research on International Environment National Development and Security (Friends). He is the current founding chairman of the Friends think-tank since its foundations.
Musharraf on Beg
General Beg was one of many professor under whom Musharraf had studied at National Defence University.
Written works
Books
Articles
Awards and decorations
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|Nishan-e-Imtiaz
(Military)
(Order of Excellence)
|Hilal-i-Imtiaz
(Military)
(Crescent of Excellence)
|Sitara-e-Basalat
(Star of Valour)
|Tamgha-e-Diffa
(Defence Medal)
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|Sitara-e-Harb 1965 War
(War Star 1965)
|Sitara-e-Harb 1971 War
(War Star 1971)
|Tamgha-e-Jang 1965 War
(War Medal 1965)
|Tamgha-e-Jang 1971 War
(War Medal 1971)
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|10 Years Service Medal
|20 Years Service Medal
|30 Years Service Medal
|40 Years Service Medal
|-
|Tamgha-e-Sad Saala Jashan-e-e-Quaid-e-Azam
(100th Birth Anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah)
1976
|Tamgha-e-Qayam-e-Jamhuria
(Republic Commemoration Medal)
1956
|Hijri Tamgha
(Hijri Medal)
1979
|Jamhuriat Tamgha
(Democracy Medal)
1988
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|Qarardad-e-Pakistan Tamgha
(Resolution Day
Golden Jubilee Medal)
1990
|Tong il
Order of National Security Merit
(South Korea)
|The Legion of Merit
(Degree of Commander)
(United States)
|Order of King Abdul Aziz
(1st Class)
(Saudi Arabia)
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Foreign decorations
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="3" style="background:#006400; color:#FFFFFF; text-align:center" |Foreign Awards
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|Tong il Order of National Security Merit
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|The Legion of Merit (Degree of Commander)
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|Order of King Abdul Aziz - Class I
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Further reading
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Zahid Hussain. Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
External links
- Official profile at Pakistan Army website
- Articles by Mirza Aslam Beg at Outlook India
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