By Admiral (R) Afzal Tahir
The campaign to bring the state to its knees has started. We have been talking about 5th generation war and this appears to be the final battle in the long war that State of Pakistan has been embroiled in for the last two decades, if not more. The obtaining international situation around us is on the boil. While China-India conflagration is ongoing, other theaters are being activated in South China Sea and its littoral.
Afghanistan is on a double-edged sword and it is not clear who will end up being slaughtered, the status quo or the opposing entity. Israel has entered the Arabian/Persian Gulf with a bang and an era of heightened tension around the waterway has just begun. Pakistan-India conflict is very much on the cards and it appears to be a matter of time and not if. The internal fight against terrorism has not yet been finally won and there are numerous other fronts that the state is fighting on, notably the battle to revive the economy and to avert an economic meltdown.
Kashmir is already smoldering and recently a fire has been lit in our GB region. In this dangerous scenario, enter the Pakistani opposition with a program of anti-government agitation. The agenda here appears to be removal of the sitting government for many reasons but without a clear-cut alternate strategy and program. If that were not serious enough and a cause for great concern, the core target of this agitation has clearly been identified by the opposition and that is the establishment or army to be more specific.
The opposition has been building the anti-army narrative for the last two years and foundation of it was laid immediately after the last elections through the venomous and false claim of ‘selector and selected’. It is intriguing to note the consistency and single-minded pursuit in building this narrative by all opposition parties who rarely agree on any other point.
Having successfully built this narrative, the opposition have now become more direct and explicit in targeting the army for all the ills of the country and all the troubles the opposition political leaders find themselves in.
These slurs have achieved an unprecedented tone and tenor in the last two weeks or so and at least one opposition political leader, the detestable, fake moulvi has openly threatened armed Taliban-style combat against the army. It is another matter that this clown does not have the brains, grit, religious fervor, selflessness, courage, antecedents, physique, and the terrain to indulge in an insurgency.
Further, the Taliban were fighting against a foreign occupying force and that is not the case here as Pakistan Army is the national army. Nevertheless, the threat has many a connotation and needs to be taken with all seriousness. It is amply evident that the entire opposition is explicitly trying to damage the very institution that has rendered supreme sacrifices for defense of the country over its entire history and particularly in the last two decades.
Is this a part of the 5th generation war and is it the final battle in this war? Is the key question here? In my opinion, the combined verbal onslaught that we are witnessing is a pointer to the probability that it is so. How these threats might manifest requires a long discussion but whatever actions the opposition political parties take to turn these threats into actions will become clear in the next few weeks.
The proceedings of the Oct 11 events will shed light on this aspect. It goes without saying that political government and security establishment must take cognizance of this grave matter. Reason for this preamble is that I really want to delve into background for the opening of this chapter in our history. There are many sayings and idioms that are available in all societies to deal with trouble and troublemakers and unfortunately the establishment has been ignoring all these, resultantly bringing the situation to this pass.
These idioms reflect centuries of societal wisdom and have a lot of sense and experience behind them. In the context of current situation, the most applicable are; nip the evil in the bud, familiarity breeds contempt, a stitch in time saves nine, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me and a Punjabi one that roughly translates in to, never make the mistake of loving a juvenile snake and never make the mistake of believing hundred oaths of a pro – tute (woman of trade).
The mistake that has been made is that these elements have been allowed to flourish despite their known criminal and anti-state activities. The powers that be routinely entertained meetings with these criminals hence breeding familiarity and the resultant contempt. By not taking actions at the right time, under some misplaced illusions or promises, has resulted in these juvenile snakes becoming fully grown poisonous reptiles and believing their solemn pledges has come to haunt those who entertained the promises or undertakings of these ‘political women of trade’.
If I might be a little more open, there was no earthly reason for the head of the institution to meet with such lowly characters, the job could have been aptly performed by a suitable junior rank officer. The game of wait and see has landed the institution in the current mess while so many legal recourses could have been adopted to stem the tide. There are literally countless occasions when the establishment took a lenient view of words and deeds of many of the ruling elite, thus displaying a weakness, inability or leniency which, notch by notch, has emboldened these criminals.
The removal of name of a prominent PML(N) lady from the list of ‘Dawn Leaks Perpetrators’ has miserably backfired in the face of the establishment, as has the acceptance of mere resignations of other perpetrators, while harsher constitutional options were available. At a press conference, the wrongdoings of a small party and its financial trail were laboriously revealed by the official spokesperson, but nothing was done subsequently.
This suggested two things; either the information shared was incorrect or the establishment did not have the grit to follow up on the allegations. Both these suggestions dented the image of the institution and emboldened the said party members to foray into further anti-state utterances and actions.
The white-haired Khwaja called and made a complaint of rigging in his constituency and lo and behold, his electoral defeat was turned into a victory; that gave him the confidence to utter all nonsense against the very institution where had lodged the complaint of alleged rigging (recall, they get paid from our taxes and they have removed all flesh from the country’s skeleton and reduced it to bare bones).
Then there was the hyped-up case of drug smuggling against a prominent political leader. After all the hullabaloo, nothing came of the case, affording opportunity and reason to the accused of leveling charge of political harassment. If it were indeed a leniency for something in return, the subsequent actions of the accused have not manifested any quid pro quo. That, in fact is the story with all those who were provided relief and did not live up to the (promised) return favours.
It is thus clear that all the above quoted words of societal wisdom were flouted with two consequence; one that the state has always been befooled and the other that there is enhanced anti-establishment rhetoric. The cardinal mistake was made when, despite everyone yelling that the country was at war, with precious lives being lost on a daily basis, nothing constitutional was done to declare the nation to be at war. Thus, the country fought a declared (by everyone) war without any constitutional restrictions on the citizens of the country.
This hamstrung the state from doing many a thing against its detractors, propagandists, criminals and terrorists and ironically allowed some courts to acquit even terrorists who had been proven guilty of the most heinous of crimes by lower courts. For example, one high court judge would not have been able to acquit about a hundred proven terrorists but at the cost of going to the gallows himself.
Then the propagandists and fifth columnists had a field day spreading falsehood, indulging in rumour mongering and working against the interests of the country during wartime, with impunity. It proves that the state was less concerned for the death of thousands of security personnel and ordinary citizens and had more concern for civil liberties.
With such lopsided priorities of the state, it is indeed a miracle that we have been able to almost defeat the visible enemy, but the invisible enemies have gathered strength and courage. I have heard the phrase that, ‘Pakistan is passing through a critical stage’, nearly all my adult life but what has gone by was a cake walk compared to what the country is going through now.
It is going to take all the skill and sagacity of the state to come out of it unscathed but the first step in that direction has to be the abandonment of policy of appeasement, leniency and downright willful negligence witnessed hitherto and the first step in that direction must be institution of cases under article 6 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan where applicable without fear of any fallout because failure to do so will have more damaging fallout.
Let the state come out of the fear brought about by a perception of onset of turmoil in case criminals in politics are proceeded against. Let the law take its course because what is happening to the state and what might happen is worse than what might happen in that eventuality.