WHERE HAS PINDI GONE WRONG?

How Bajwa & Co. Pushed the Army

Into a Corner, But the Rivals are
Dumb and Dumber
Shaheen Sehbai
A FRIEND who just returned from Umrah sent me a video
in which he is praying for Pakistan and at the end wishes
that Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan should get together for
the country — an almost unthinkable idea at this time.
Then thinking deeper and taking a longer and an
overview of the country’s situation some things stuck in
my head:
- Imran Khan, by all counts now the most popular and
followed politician of Pakistan, is attacking the role of the Pakistan
Army, its security agencies and the Establishment, still mostly
between the lines.
- To prove his point, Khan plays and replays stinging attacks, abuses
and threats by others, Nawaz Sharif, his family and supporters on the
role of the same Establishment. Khan is actually saying these guys
are even worse enemies.
- The judiciary, also stung many times by the ruthless intervention and
obstruction by the Army, subservient at times, does not come out
openly but yesterday when Chief Justice Athar Minallah of the
Islamabad High Court summoned the Prime Minister in the “Missing
Persons’ Case” what was he trying to say and prove? All know who
picks up these missing persons but the Judge was, probably between
the lines, telling Mr Shahbaz Sharif you are a dummy, you have done
nothing, or probably cannot do anything. Get some shame.
- Everyone of these important stakeholders are angry, doubtful and
targeting the same institution but since the stranglehold of Pindi on
men and matters is so blunt and obvious, no one speaks out openly.
-
In this larger picture is not the army sort of isolated and cornered but not
facing any real pressure?
 It is so because all these selfish, divergent opponents of its intrusive
political role, at times in defiance of the Constitution, the laws and even
common sense, do not have even a tiny dot of vision or worry for the
long-term stable, agreed and honestly pursued national agenda, where all
stay within their domain and not transgress.
Just a flashback to 2-3 years and everyone remembers how General
Bajwa was attacked and maligned by Nawaz Sharif and family.
Why did the high command
not do anything against him
at that time?
The answer to that
question in my mind is
simple. The Army high
command was clearly
divided and except a few on
the top, many sympathized
and agreed with what Sharif
was saying. So he was
helped in many underhand
ways, through relief in jail or
using pliant and like-minded judges to show leniency and give him a free
hand. He was given what he wanted, no matter how blatant and unjustified
the favours appeared to be.
That also kept the powers of the then PM Imran Khan under check and
no matter how frustrated and helpless Khan felt privately, he was not in a
position to hold on to power without the help of the establishment, given his
shaky numbers in parliament.
The judges remained on the sidelines, neither here nor there, but just
waiting for things to settle down or adjusting to changing realities on a daily
basis.
Then Khan started drifting away as he realized his handcuffed
premiership was not taking him anywhere. He took issues on matters of
constitutional principles and Pindi did not like it.
Khan was reckless as well at times in his comments and remarks,
whether public or in private, as everyone knows a senior military officer
always sits behind any PM, listening to and reporting to the GHQ what is
being discussed even in party meetings or at home. Why this tradition has
gone on is beyond me but it must end. What does a military secretary have
to do with an elected civilian PM or CM or Governor, at that too at all times.
 Then came the issue of giving another extension to General Bajwa and
that is where I think the Army lost its marbles and contracted into a corner.
Gen. Bajwa announced he will not seek an extension and then everything
behind the scenes was done to make sure he stays on.
That glaring contradictory behaviour baffled and confused many senior
officers and even retired generals and supporters. Slowly the actions on the
ground, as the November deadline came creeping closer, became
desperate and reckless and indefensible by even staunch supporters of the
army, who believe it must be strong and ready to fight the enemy. Not its
own people.
The desperation grew and everyone understands, knows and believes
who is behind the actions and decisions of second tier institutions like the
Election Commission, PEMRA, SECP, the hidden soldiers known as Mr X,
Mr Y or Mr Z, the sector commanders of secret agencies, the
disappearance of military officers, retired or serving, the termination of
privileges and perks of retired officers who have to depend on these
pensions (if they did not make outrageous millions or billions), shut up
orders given directly to outspoken retired generals (some obliged, others
defied), closure of TV channels and physical beating and harassment of
journalists and politicians.
Thus an open war was declared against the Army brass on the social
media and all sorts of accusations and abuses flew across the globe, but
they remained oblivious of the situation, defiant, not realizing how much
damage its image and acceptability among the people had been caused.
Imran Khan then crossed the threshold of turning his Movement for
Change into a Freedom Movement — freedom from whom? Obviously the
unjustified stranglehold of the army over its own people.
His defiance caught the imagination of the masses and his super speed
campaigning suddenly turned the country which was divided on the basis of
political affiliations, ideologies, nationalism, family loyalties or whatever
(biryani plates) into a snowball, then into a solid mountain.
His popularity has not been registered, digested or understood by Pindi.
The reaction was in outlandish actions, frivolous cases, public
denunciations and almost ceaseless persecution of his men and supporters
leading probably to a “technical knockout” punch.
Khan is infuriated, obviously, but cool, though worried about his life.
He has come pretty close to threatening the army of marching on to
Islamabad but what he actually means, and everyone understands, is that
he wants to march on Rawalpindi and repeat the Erdogan Turkish model
that wiped out the powers of the generals. He has still shown exemplary
restraint as he knows how destructive it may be for the country.
But if push comes to shove, or something breaks down somewhere, the
perceived non-violent character or face of Khan’s followers may certainly
take a monstrous turn. If that barrier is broken, there will be no coming back
to sanity.
But here I come to the point where I find the Opposition dumb and
dumber.
The army has put itself in a box, simply to serve the ambitions and power
greed of one top general and his cronies. Everyone who goes and talks to
people in Pindi or Islamabad privately says there is so much uncertainty
that anything and everything can happen and no one knows how things
may settle.
But now that we
know Khan and his
men are feeling like
injured tigers, where
are those anti-army
loud-speakers,
warriors and fighters
who used to make tall
claims and threats by
naming generals and
secret agencies.
The biggest party of
Nawaz has sheepishly
taken cover behind the small Pindi umbrella because the mistakes made by
generals have turned this political force almost irrelevant and unable to
make any political impact. A docile kitten sitting in a khaki lap, PML-N has
no narrative left to tell the people.
If they accuse Khan of corruption, that's like the pot calling the kettle
black. If they accuse Khan of misgovernance and inefficiency, the Shahbaz
Government has performed like a novice and in four months wiped all
charges of incompetence against the four years of Khan rule. If they were
accusing Khan of being a selected PM, as they did ad-infinitum, now Pindi
is behaving like a virtual Godfather with the PM a stooge.
The judiciary, as always in awe and fear of the generals, may be itching
to make a bold move but the divisions, lack of cohesion and vision in the
political class and the society, does not encourage it to take a leap forward.
 So everyone is hiding in the basement. Were there any leaders with
courage, vision and integrity, this was the time for the civil and
political society, the intelligentsia, the business, media and honest
bureaucrats, saner minds to rally together and send a firm message
to the Pindi boys that they must now HALT THE BOOTS and stop
bulldozing the nation any more.
If Pindi takes a couple of steps back to bring sanity, the nation will still be
fully behind them to stay strong and fight the enemy but they must stop
fighting its own people.
The previous examples of Generals Ayub, Ziaul Haq, Yahya Khan and
Musharraf have enough lessons that must be learnt.
But if the intellectual and professional acumen and thinking level of our
generals has also fallen so far below average that they cannot understand
the challenges and threats, Pakistan must then prepare for a real disaster,
a civil war, a turmoil and chaos where everyone else will be attacking,
looting, killing everyone else for a small piece of bread.
The big looters, including generals, will obviously take refuge in foreign
peaceful lands and farm houses.

The writer is a Senior Journalist based in United States @ssehbai1