Former chief of the IB Brig. Imtiaz frequently appears on our TV screens these days. Most of his disclosures are causing damage to the state and its institutions. One should, however, be thankful to him and the, then, Corps Commander Karachi, Lt Gen. (Rtd) Naseer Akhtar, for clarifying that the MQM was not involved in any plans to separate from Sindh by making a 'Jinnahpur'. The MQM is understandably jubilant at this disclosure. They have distributed sweets and held a rally in which the MQM chief has demanded judicial inquiry to ascertain who was behind the decision to launch the 1992 operation in Karachi that (allegedly) killed 15,000 of the MQM workers. To add further to the confusion, Mian Nawaz Sharif, who was the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time, expressed ignorance on the matter saying he was not in the picture as to on whose behest and on what pretext, the operation was launched. The nave Mr. Sharif was also not in the picture (or so he claims) in his second tenure when his COAS started the Kargil conflict. It seems Mian sahib is again on a face-saving spree. Perhaps his target is to implicate the premier institution of the country in this controversy, which, according to him, holds the democracy hostage to whims of the generals. -ALYA ALVI, Rawalpindi, via e-mail, August 25.