A sensational claim has been made by a Pakistani journalist who said that Pakistan’s former Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa did not believe in his army’s competence to fight India and hence wanted to foster peace with India.
Bajwa had said that Pakistan lacked the ammunition and economic strength to fight against India, so it must settle for peace with India, said Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, on a live TV show with Naseem Zehra on UK-based Pakistani media channel ‘UK44’.
Mir claimed that Bajwa had also planned the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan in April 2021, two months after the announcement of ceasefire between two countries along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, but the same was met with strong objection from Pakistani Foreign Office and then Prime Minister Imran Khan, who foiled his backdoor discussions with India.
“Qamar Javed Bajwa tried to sell Kashmir to India. He made a deal on Kashmir with India, trying to get another extension for himself,” claimed Mir in the interview.
“After the announcement of ceasefire along Line of Control with India in February 2021, Bajwa had planned the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan.
“When Pakistani Foreign Office came to know about it, a furious Shah Mehmood Qureshi (then Pakistani Foreign Minister) went to meet Imran Khan. Khan said that while he was aware of Bajwa and General Faiz Hameed talking to Indian NSA Ajit Doval, Modi’s visit was a news to him,” said Mir.
Mir claimed that Imran Khan asked General Faiz to at least ‘keep the Foreign Office onboard’.
“But then Bajwa stormed into the Foreign Office and lectured Qureshi that Pakistan Army cannot fight India.
“He lectured them — the same lecture that he had given to us—do you remember — tanks are not in condition to work, there is no diesel for the movements of cannons and we should settle for peace with India,” Mir told Zehra.
At this, both Mir and Zehra claimed that Bajwa had confessed in presence of 25 journalists during a briefing in General Headquarters of Pakistan Army,Rawalpindi that Pakistan Army is not in condition to fight India and is no match for the Indian Army.
Mir continued, “However, Qureshi confronted Bajwa and told him that this (peace negotiation) is a trap of India. This is against the national interest of Pakistan, Qureshi told Bajwa, who reiterated that Modi will visit Pakistan on 9 April, 2021.”
However, the same couldn’t happen as Imran Khan sided with Qureshi and ruined Bajwa’s ambitious plan who wanted to solve Kashmir issue and get another extension for himself as Army Chief, Mir claimed.
Hamid also claimed that slain Kashmiri separatist leader Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani saw Bajwa as ‘a dangerous man’.
“Before his death, Geelani had recorded a message and shared it with his friends in Pakistan. The video message said that Bajwa was more dangerous than Parvez Musharaff,” claimed Mir.
