Editor’s Note:  Lt. Gen. (retd.) Shahid Aziz has been making headlines after his revelations about anti-corruption efforts and the war on terror during President Pervez Musharraf’s tenure.  The general and I have corresponded over the last few days, discussing his motivations, and he agreed to publish one of his e-mails here:
Hello Shaan,
My appearance on the [...]

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The media has been awash with reports of President Pervez Musharraf’s impending resignation in the face of the current coalition government’s move to impeach him. Late last week, both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times had issued reports that Musharraf was going to resign within days, with the Wall Street Journal going [...]

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The Intel
Insider Brief sources report that Pakistani intelligence officials have recently been engaged in a spate of closed-door meetings. The topic of discussion? The ouster of Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from power and the engineered return of Nawaz Sharif.
The Why
The news in and of itself should not be [...]

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The Daily Telegraph reported that the head of one of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, appointed by President Pervez Musharraf, would be replaced by Gen. Ashfaq Kayani as part of his drive to withdraw the Pakistan Army from national politics.
Our sources have confirmed that Gen. Kayani will be replacing Major General Nadeem Ejaz, the Director General of [...]

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Pundits and Pakistan-watchers alike continue to swear that democracy is the long awaited panacea that will cure all of Pakistan’s ills — be it rampant jihadism, lagging social indicators, or the crisis in governance. Their memories have proven to be short, having forgotten the 1990’s, a period that was marked by corruption, extreme abuses [...]

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THE ARMY ADVANCES …
Hot off its relative success in sweeping Swat of militants led by Maulana Fazlullah, sources report that the Pakistan Army has set its sights on Baitullah Mehsud, the purported mastermind behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
In addition to military action, sources also report that a major facet of the newfound campaign involves [...]

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Around Christmas, sources had reported that Pakistani intelligence had indications that the violence afflicting the rest of the country — Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi — was making its way to Lahore.
Today, it did. A suicide bomber detonated himself amidst a 70-member police contingent, minutes before a weekly lawyer’s protest in front of the Lahore [...]

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Late Saturday night during a Democratic Party debate, presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton stated that if elected president, she would propose joint US-British oversight of Pakistani nuclear weapons. Within hours, media outlets from New Hampshire to New Delhi had all picked up on the story, with headlines screaming, “Clinton Proposes Oversight of Pak Nukes.”
MISSION [...]

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Sources are indicating that Senator Barack Obama has requested to meet with Pakistani officials to discuss (read: learn about) the political situation in Pakistan and specifically, all matters pertaining to the Bhutto assassination.
Obama has taken some rather hardline stances in the past when it has come to Pakistan. He’s stated in the past [...]

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Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. Bilawal and Asif Zardari, Bhutto’s son and husband, now co-chair the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with Bilawal slated as heir to the Bhutto mantle. Asif Zardari, who has shown some maturity over the last few days, will be playing a behind-the-scenes role, similar to that of Altaf Hussain [...]

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From here at the Insider Brief, we’d like to thank all our readers for this blog’s continued success. In addition to the multitudes of web mentions (e.g. Matthew Good), we recently found ourselves speaking about Thursday’s tragic events on both TV and the radio.
TV: Fox News Channel
On Thursday morning, I made an appearance [...]

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The video below captures Bhutto’s assassin firing 3 shots from what appears to be a handgun (note how the shooter/suicide bomber was quite literally perched up onto the back of Bhutto’s SUV):

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Pakistan is in the throes of chaos following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.  Scores of people have died and there has been a grave loss of property attributable to violence, fires and looting.  The situation, as it stands now, according to sources: 

The government does not intend on imposing martial law at this point in time. [...]

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This picture was taken seconds before Benazir Bhutto was fatally wounded in a hail of assassin’s bullets.

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In light of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, sources are reporting that there is a “90% likelihood” that the January 2008 parliamentary elections in Pakistan will be postponed. Government officials are currently in meetings assessing the situation to make a final decision.  Updates soon.

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