A little piece of paper can cause a lot of problems. Memogate has stirred a veritable storm in the country and the hawks are up in full action and have found the perfect opportunity to train their guns on the civilian government. Mr Haqqani seems to be in a wealth of trouble right now and it seems that he may be made the scapegoat to deflect much of the flak that might come the government’s way.
While one cannot condone if this was done by the government in earnest but one needs to situate this in a Pakistani context. Lest one forget, a general imposing a martial law to cover up his mistake is not unheard of in Pakistan. The civil-miltray imbalance in Pakistan is extremely pronounced and there will be gaffes and hiccups like this while the country is on the path to fix it, even a little bit.
There needs to be a tempered reaction to this entire affair. While the government must give a reasoned answer for this action (if it indeed emanated from its quarters), but allegations of high treason are a bit too much. Where were these allegations of high treason when martial laws were being imposed, when fake wars were being orchestrated etc. The biggest structural issue facing the country is the troubled civil-military nexus. Without fixing that or moving towards fixing that, the more things change the more they will stay the same.
ANUM SHEIKH
Lahore
