Operation Midnight Jackal

Operation Midnight Jackal was a cold war military intelligence program run by the ISI during the first government of Prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1989. Covertly operational, the program densely infiltrated in the Intelligence Breau after successfully accessing the cassettes containing a conversation of two army officers belonging to the military intelligence.

The program reached its end with the arrests of two military officers and their subsequent courts-martial by JAG Corps of the armed forces. Despite exposed to public and mass media, the controversy over the programs continues regarding how much intelligence community was either involved or had knowledge about the program.

Program overview
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came to national power after securing landslide majority during the general elections held in 1988. The party-based elections were held after the death of President General Zia-ul-Haq and it saw Benazir Bhutto becoming the first female Prime minister. Supported by PPP, civil servant Ghulam Ishaq Khan became the President, also in 1988.

The PPP's friend pro-Soviet Union policies, leftist philosophies and proponents of social democracy was saw an attempt to disturbed the hierarchy and authority orders. Many in intelligence community were concerned over PPP's settlement on Afghan war subsidiary. In 1989, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto approved the termination papers of Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul of ISI over failure of the covert operation in Jalalabad, Afghanistan; thus tensing the PPP's political relations with the intelligence community. She instead approved the now-civilian director, Shamsur Kallu.

Initiation of the program
Since then, there were reports that intelligence community may destabilize the PPP's government. Kallu had kept an eye on ISI's many divisions involved in political circles. General Mirza Beg, chief of army staff, too kept on eye on Intelligence Bureau (IB) director, Imtiaz Ahmad. In 1989, the ISI secretly accessed the cassettes containing the conversation of two army officers (former ISI but active with IB) who were dissatisfied with corruption charges on the government of Benazir Bhutto. They had found evidence of her husband Asif Ali Zardari's involvement in corruption cases regarding the government. The investigators had found several instances where Zardari had been implicated to take commission on government contracts.

The ISI under Kallu immediately launched the program to arrest the two army officers on the charge of treason and espionage. The case was directed to JAG Corps in which, military investigators and military lawyers of prosecution revealed that Major Amir Khan, one of the accuser of plotting a coup against the corrupt government, was the architect of the Midnight Jackal.

Amir Khan testified in the court that it was done under the auspices of Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad of Intelligence Bureau (IB). The military lawyers also reported that the objectives of the Midnight Jackal were to support Nawaz Sharif, as the establishment was said to have preferred Sharif as country's Prime minister. Major Amir Khan told his military lawyers that: "Nawaz Sharif was more acceptable to the [Pakistan] Army than Benazir Bhutto." He further said, "The military believes that in the current circumstances there is no option, but to support Nawaz Sharif as we don't have other viable option."

In 1989, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto desposed Imtiaz Ahmad from IB directorship, swiftly appointed civilian intelligence officer, Masood Khattak to lead the intelligence service to investigate the matter. In 2009, Imtiaz Ahmad later quoted that it was Hameed Gul who masterminded the removal of first Benazir Bhutto government.