The Aftermath
Of the fifteen, the only woman, Begum Nasim, was acquitted, while Major General Nazir Ahmad was dismissed from service and sentenced till the rising of the court. All the others received prison sentences ranging from a minimum of four years (civilians and junior officers) to a maximum of 12 years for Major General Akbar Khan.
In the words of the principal accused, Akbar Khan, it was General Ayub Khan (the Army C-in-C) who was the choreographer of this comic strip (conspiracy case) and who apparently had feared that Akbar Khan had about two divisions at his disposal, to support him. His ordeal after his arrest is best described in his own words:
| “ | .... In the early hours of the morning on 9 March 1951 I was arrested and carried away the whole of that day, a long distance from Pindi, to jail. In the deserted suburbs of what looked like a dead town, distant and asleep, that cold night, at 11 p.m. the massive doors of the jail groaned creaked and opened slowly to swallow a motor convoy that was bringing me in seventeen hours had been taken by that convoy speeding across territory that I had not been permitted to see, so that neither the route nor the destination should be known to me or anyone else interested in following us. That morning while I had been sleeping peacefully, a hundred men had surrounded my house and successfully overpowered my one unarmed watchman. Then Major-General Mian Hayauddin knocked at my bedroom window and said that he had to see me about something most urgent. I had gone at once, without even putting on shoes, through the study door to meet him. But as I emerged, men with bayonets and sten guns had rushed at me from three sides — the front and both flanks. I had been rushed at before, during the war, by the Japanese in fighting — but never by 20 to one and not when I was unarmed. I had only a split second to think and I had let them come on. I think it had been the complete failure of this melodrama to impress me at all that had stopped the men mid-stride. No bayonet or sten gun had reached my body — and the few hands that had been laid at me had been quickly withdrawn. A mere telephone call would have sufficed to tell me that I was under arrest. But instead all troops had been alerted and these men had apparently expected to be gunned down by some sort of desperado | ” |
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan himself made the announcement from Lahore about the conspiracy which was generally regarded as treason and the conspiracy came to be known as "The Rawalpindi Conspiracy".
The UK High Commissioner in his 3rd report to his Government on the Rawalpindi Conspiracy ending 17 March 1951 on the question of evidence against the conspirators, stated that "General Akbar Khan was a dangerous man, under the influence of an ambitious wife, and that he had been regarded as very anti-Commonwealth before he went to the United Kingdom last year to attend the Joint Services Staff College. According to Gracey the Defence Secretary Iskander Mirza wished Akbar to go on to the Imperial Defence College to "complete his education". The impression was that on his return, he would be less anti-British, and it was felt that he might be sobered up by being given a responsible job under the eye of the Commander-in-Chief at GHQ. General Gracey also told Colonel Franklin that he had informed the Chief of the Imperial Staff of Akbar's tendencies before he had left for the course... According to an informant... the police have been investigating the activities of Akbar and his wife for the last two years, and General Gracey also maintains that these two, and certain of his friends, had been known as the "Young Turk Party". In spite of all this those in charge were, last December, quite happy to appoint the General to a key post in the Pakistan Army".
Akbar Khan was also one of three generals (the others being Lt. Gen. S.G.M. Pirzada and Tikka Khan) who met with Pakistani President Yahya Khan on 20 February 1971 to plan "Operation Searchlight"; he was appointed Chief of National Security in December, 1971 (after Pakistan's defeat at combined hands of Mukti Bahini and India) by Pakistan's new Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Muhammad Akbar Khan died in 1993 at the age of 81 in Karachi.He was buried in Defense Military graveyard Karachi.
Read more about this topic: Akbar Khan (Pakistani General)
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