With the type of army-bashing campaign going on why would a soldier fight the militants in formidable tribal areas, at the peril of their lives to protect an ungrateful nation, they may ask themselves. Though inadvertently, the campaign against general rank officers, to whom the soldiers look up with respect and seek guidance, is in full swing that will take its toll very soon, unless nipped right now.
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The most lethal weapon that can be used
to weaken the fighting ability of any army is the psychological warfare
machine. Ipso facto, while the war arsenal is spewing fire against the
adversary force the psychological war wing plays its own role. This
wing’s most effective method is to unleash a campaign to demean the
status of commanders of the adversary force before their soldier. This
is what the Chief of Army Staff alluded to while addressing officers at
GHQ Auditorium, November 5. The Army Chief said: “Equally important is
the trust between the leaders and the led in the armed forces. Any
effort to create a distinction between the two undermines the very basis
of the concept and is not tolerated.” It is believed that a sinister
campaign is being run against the generals which not only created doubts
about the military leadership but also affected the morale and fighting
zest of the troops.
With the type of army-bashing campaign
going on why would a soldier fight the militants in formidable tribal
areas, at the peril of their lives to protect an ungrateful nation, they
may ask themselves. Though inadvertently, the campaign against general
rank officers, to whom the soldiers look up with respect and seek
guidance, is in full swing that will take its toll very soon, unless
nipped right now.
An impression may have been formed that
the strong-worded statement from the COAS was emanated as a riposte to
some of the observations made by the Supreme Court in Asghar Khan case
about the ISI funding politicians in the past, the boot is on the other
foot. As a matter of fact the nitty gritty of the Asghar Khan case has
yet to be investigated to come to a consensus that the two former
generals, Aslam Beg and Asad Durrani were really guilty of some act that
was committed to secure personal gains or they had, trampled national
interest. And what about the politicians who were the recipients of the
money and played an active role in carrying out plans to manoeuvre
elections in favour of a particular political group? The role of the
affected political leaders is not mentioned with the same gusto as those
of the two generals by the judiciary or the media. The fundamental
principle that no one is guilty until proven guilty may not be ignored.
The remarks of Lt General® Javed Ashraf
Qazi in response to an unscheduled pricking question of a media man have
been blown out of proportion by the media. Besides him the other two
generals in the Royal Palm case, Lt General Saeed uz Zaffar and Lt
General Butt were hounded by the media as if they were hardened
criminals. Thus an absolute biased and wrong picture of the demeanour of
the generals is painted before the masses. Let the court decide their
case threadbare and if found guilty an appropriate punishment should be
awarded.
However, so far as the ground realities
are concerned, it has been revealed that the act of the three generals
when they were running the affairs of the railway department, is giving
more monthly income to the organisation than the entire income accruing
from running of trains, today. So why not wait for the verdict of the
court?
The alarm bells in the army circles rang
not because a case was framed against some retired generals but it was
felt by rank and file that an effort was being made to malign the army
as an institution for the omissions and commissions of yet-to-be-probed
eight generals. History would recall that in the past too government of
the day took punitive action against some general rank officers but the
cases were treated as individual acts while their parent institutions
were never dragged in the murky business. Air Marshal Rahim Khan, Chief
of Air Staff, Lt General Sahibzad Gul, Chief of Army Staff were
summarily removed from service by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in
the early seventies. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif eased out of service
Admiral Mansoor ul Haq, the Naval Chief and Army Chief, General Jahangir
Karamat during his tenure as the chief executive of the country. Today
the army lists 22 Lt Generals and 148 Major Generals with a total
strength of 6,20,000 soldiers on its pay roll. If you work out the
percentage of strength of the generals vis a vis the rest of the army,
generals form 0.03 per cent while the rest make 99.97 per cent. Would it
not be unfair to malign the whole institution just because the cases of
eight former generals are in the process of investigation?
The army fights with the support and
backing of the nation. Both in the print and electronic media the way
army’s image is maligned is also being seen by troops facing militants
in the tribal areas. The soldiers, especially the young leadership is
likely to lose enthusiasm in fighting the militants who are otherwise
hell bent to seize control of urban areas to enforce their philosophy.
The Army is fighting its longest war in its 64 years history. The
sensitivities of the soldiers must be honoured by the nation.
It is said judges do not talk, their
decisions talk. Here our judiciary has in the recent past passed remarks
that are further publicised by the media wherein the armed forces are
referred to in very derogatory language. On the Balochistan law and
order situation Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry passed a remark
that Frontier Corps as a body should be replaced by the police and the
expenses incurred on the upkeep of FC be transferred to police. No
consideration was given to the difficulties the FC was facing in
discharging their duties to contain insurgency and for which they have
sacrificed so many personnel. In other cases too the apex court has been
passing remarks (not formal judgments) that are quite derogatory to the
armed forces as an institution.
The performance of the Apex court in
deciding high profile corruption cases is commendable but that is only
the tip of the judicial iceberg in the country. 90 percent of litigants
face hardship of an insurmountable magnitude in lower courts but remedy
or relief has not been provided to them. Many lawyers have acted
unlawfully; there have been cases where sitting judges in court rooms
were thrashed, cops entering courts were beaten, legal services to
litigants were denied but the higher judiciary never took a suo motu
notice of trampling of law by the very community that is assigned the
task of protection of law. This situation must have prompted General
Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani to mention in his GHQ speech that we should all
work within the ambit of our given role.
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By Sayed GB Shah Bokhari
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