Asghar Khan & that Letter!

In 1977, opposition leader Asghar Khan wrote a letter to the Chief of Army Staff and heads of the Armed forces. It was a letter that would controversially be cited as grounds for the subsequent military coup by General Zia.

To put things in perspective in 1977  there was turmoil in Pakistan, a controversial election had just been held in which the Pakistan Peoples Party had won a majority. The opposition had launched a widespread protest against the results. Bhutto aide Khalid Hasan described these events :

Asghar Khan was not part of the PNA team because Bhutto disliked him so much that he could not bear to see him sitting across the table with his people negotiating the future of his government and the election he rightly felt he had won hands down despite the rigging of some seats. He should have realised that Asghar Khan outside the room was far more dangerous than inside. After all, it was he who had written an open letter to the three service chiefs asking them to remove Bhutto from office. At the time, there was much too much agitation in the country for the Air Marshal to be tried on the grave charge of advocating a lawfully constituted government’s overthrow by the armed forces.

 Anyway,  I have included a copy of his letter below taken from Asghar Khans book and let you decide: