More on the Ijaz Shah story

Pakistan Daily Times

Dr Buttar, who returned from Pakistan this week, told Daily Times that the said that a top intelligence official, who also happens to be related to her, came to see her on December 16 last year at her family home in Lahore and assured her that there was no difference between the objectives for which ANAA was working and the ones the Musharraf government had dedicated itself to. He told her that Gen Pervez Musharraf was a very emancipated man with liberal views who could be president of ANAA itself.

Citing family connections, including Dr Buttar’s brother who is settled in Australia and whom the had met on a recent visit, he spoke to her about “the hazards of doing the kind of work I am doing, and how certain agencies were very dangerous, and people disappear without anyone every finding them”.

“He said he had known when I was arriving in Pakistan, and if he knew that, other agencies must have known it too,” Dr Buttar said. “He said anything was possible anywhere and actually it would be easier to get things done in the USA. ‘If we so wish, we can get anything done in New York too and, in fact, it is easier. All we have to do is to give some money to some black and get anyone killed and nobody would ever find out what happened’ were almost his exact words,” she said.

“I was stunned by this. I was sitting across the room from him and I got up and went and sat next to him and said, ‘Shah Sahib, you were saying that you met my brother and asked him about my personality, so perhaps he did not tell you what I am like. I am not afraid of the sort of threats (you have made) because it is my faith that it is Allah’s will what day death will come. The day death is due to come, whether through a bullet or a heart attack, that is the day it will come.’ Then he said, ‘I am not threatening you, only telling you how powerful we are.’ To which I replied, ‘From where I come, this is a threat.’ Nothing more was said between us.”