IB chief sacked, NWFP Chief Secy made OSD

ISLAMABAD-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif axed the chief of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and sidelined the NWFP Chief Secretary on Saturday for giving wrong information to him that one of the US Cruise missiles hit Pakistani territory killing five persons.

The service contract of the IB chief, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad, which was to expire in the first quarter of the next year, was terminated with immediate effect. The NWFP Chief Secretary, Rustum Shah, was ordered to leave his charge and report to the Establishment Division.

Their number two were directed to assume charge in their place.

In fact, a hasty fax message based on half-baked information from Shah to Federal authorities on Friday became the sole cause of the action by the Prime Minister.

An official said in his message, Shah had informed the Federal Government that one of the Cruise missiles, fired from the US ships in the Arabian Sea at specified targets in Afghanistan, hit a Pakistani village near the border area of Miranshah (North Waziristan agency) with Khost (Afghanistan).

The information was conveyed to the IB chief with the instructions to check it. He reported that it was correct.

As the Prime Minister regarded the startling information absolutely correct, he asked the Foreign Office spokesman to break the big news at the special news briefing on Friday that a US missile hit Pakistani territory, killing five persons.

The official said after the American reaction came in, denying that any Pakistani area was hit, the Pakistani authorities started checking about the veracity of the information received from the NWFP government. It later transpired that in fact, six bodies of Pakistanis killed near Khost by the US strike were brought to the Miranshah hospital, and the NWFP authorities had thought that these persons were killed by the missile in Pakistani territory.

The Foreign Office spokesman's disclosure was very discomforting and embarrassing for the United States, as it threw to dogs the American sophistication in high-tech. Suddenly, they went into action, and told the Pakistani authorities in categorical terms that the information was not correct.

When the US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger addressed a news conference late Friday night (around 11 pm Pakistan time), telecast live on CNN and BBC, he made it a point to mention the retraction of the statement made by the Pakistan government in fact, Berger read out the exact wording of the retraction, a copy of which he was holding in his hands when he started the Press conference.

Interestingly, none of the Press reports, even those emanating from Miranshah, had suggested that any missile fell in Pakistani territory or any person was killed in North Waziristan due to it.

The NWFP government had furnished the information to the Federal authorities when a high-level meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by all the chiefs of the armed forces was deliberating over Pakistan's stand on the US strikes on Friday.

The official said action under the rules will be taken against Shah for misfeeding the Federal Government on a highly sensitive issue.