The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis

Abstract

Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case was the first conspiracy in the armed forces of Pakistan to overthrow a civilian government. In March 1951, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, in a statement, revealed a conspiracy in the armed forces ‘to create revolutionary condition in the country by violent means and to subvert the loyality of Pakistan’s defence forces’. The ring leaders of the conspiracy, who had already been arrested included two army officers – Major General Akbar Khan, Chief of General Staff (CGS) and Brigadier Muhammad Abdul Latif Khan, Commander 52 Brigade and Station Commander Quetta – and two civilians, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, editor, Pakistan Times, Lahore, and Mrs Nasim Akbar Khan. The two army officers were dismissed from service with immediate effect. The prime minister said that he could not disclose publicly the details of the plans of those who were implicated in the conspiracy for ‘reasons of national security’, but assured the nation that they would have stuck at the very foundations of our national existence and disrupted the stability of Pakistan. The government, however, expressed full confidence in the armed forces and the statement ended on a patriotic note congratulating them ‘on their deep and unquestioned affection for Pakistan and their resistance to all disruptive influence’.