Ziauddin Butt
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| Ziauddin Butt | |
| Occupation | Head of Pakistani ISI |
|---|---|
Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt is the former head of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI who was nominated for the post of Pakistan Army chief in 1999 by then PM Nawaz Sharif after dismissing the incumbent chief General Pervez Musharraf. The move backfired as Nawaz Sharif government was removed by the military, and Gen Ziauddin sacked and subsequently arrested for being part of the "conspiracy."[1]
Ziauddin was commissioned in Pakistan Army in the Corps of Engineers, a fighting arm in October 1964 in the 30th PMA Long Course. However Infantry / Armoured Corps / Artillery are considered to be superior to Signals and Engineers, so for this reason Army high command sided with Musharraf in ousting Ziauddin as the Army chief since 1947 had always belonged to the superior fighting arm (infantry, armoured corps, artillery, Signals or Engineers).[2] Butt was promoted to Lt. Gen. February 25, 1996 and at the time of promotion of General Musharraf to the Army chief in October 1998, he was serving as the Adjutant General (AG), at the GHQ, Rawalpindi.[3] When Lt. Generals Ali Kuli Khan and Khalid Nawaz were superseded by Musharraf, Ziauddin Butt moved to No.2 slot in the seniority list of Lt Gens.[4] He was subsequently assigned to head the ISI by PM Nawaz Sharif, after replacing Lt. Gen. Nasim Rana who was posted as Master-General Ordnance.[4]
A year after taking over ISI, Ziauddin was nominated by Sharif to head the Army, while Musharraf was on a foreign trip to Sri Lanka. The army refused to accept this decision, and overthrew Sharif's government in the subsequent coup d'état. Ziauddin Butt was subsequently retired and thrown in jail with all the post-retirement privileges taken away. Later when Nawaz Sharif's party won the 2008 elections, Sharif conveyed a message to the former general that he will be "accommodated at an opportune time."[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Editorial: Another blot on the ISI" Daily Times, August 25, 2002
- ^ Ikram Sehgal. "Knights of The Long Table" Media Monitors, September 30, 2004
- ^ Rahimullah Yusufzai. "I never advocated martial law: Kuli" The News, October 03, 2006
- ^ a b B. Raman. "A Revamp of Pakistani Intelligence Community is underway" SAPRA India, 18 December, 1998
- ^ Azaz Syed. "Nawaz to ‘accommodate’ Gen Ziauddin, Maqbool" Daily Times, April 20, 2008
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lt. General Nasim Rana |
Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence 1998–1999 |
Succeeded by Lt. General Mahmud Ahmad |
