A series of most unfortunate events
The Supreme Court finally taking cognizance of Memogate and constituting an inquiry commission headed by a former FIA head has thrown a spanner in the works. This might prove to be the proverbial last straw for the Zardari government.
Normally calm and composed, Babar Awan – flanked by PPP stalwarts like Firdous Ashiq Awan, Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira and Khursheed Shah – returning from a hurriedly called meeting at the presidency immediately after the Supreme Court’s issuing of the edict pressed the panic button. He declared that after sending three prime ministers from Sindh in a casket back to Sindh, the stage was being set to dispatch the fourth casket; the casket being that of the president this time.
Babar’s severe denouncement of the apex court can be interpreted as a strategic decision by the PPP to play the Sindh card. It betrays a certain sense of desperation about the state of affairs. The PPP-led government feels cornered from all sides. Obviously, it perceives that Zardari is the real target while Haqqani is merely a decoy.
As if Memogate was not enough, the possibility of re-opening of the Swiss cases against Mr Zardari as a result of the Supreme Court rejecting the government’s review petition against declaring the NRO null and void hangs like the sword of Damocles over the president’s head.
An overtly confident Nawaz Sharif personally appearing and speaking in favour of his petition on Memogate and the court’s severe edict leave little room for optimism for the government. The chief justice’s ‘advice’ to Sharif to invoke the example of former president Richard Nixon who after being indicted in the Watergate scandal was ultimately forced to resign was a clear hint that the president should not take his immunity under the constitution for granted.
The Supreme Court’s direction to the parliamentary committee on national security to forward all details of the memo issue to the commission which has been given a time frame of three weeks to submit its report renders the parliament’s role in probing the matter as secondary. In this context, Nawaz Sharif’s remarks at the Faisalabad rally on 20 November that the present government has rendered the parliament irrelevant and toothless assume special significance.
Perennial conspiracy theorists suspect an emerging alliance between the ubiquitous military and intelligence establishment, the courts and the opposition to undo Zardari. In hindsight, Shahbaz Sharif chanting “Go Zardari go” at the top of his voice at the Lahore rally on 28 October was not without a purpose, they contend.
There is a definite method to the madness. The PML(N) panicking in the face of Imran Khan’s meteoric rise and its own dismal performance in the Punjab now seems in a hurry to see the back of Zardari even if it means sleeping with the enemy.
Now it is well known that the ISI chief General Shuja Pasha specially flew in to London for a one-on-one with whistleblower Mansoor Ijaz on 20 October. Armed with documentary evidence provided to him by Mansoor Ijaz, he was apparently convinced of Haqqani and his backers’ role in composing and getting the memo delivered to the then US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen.
The incriminating evidence coupled with Imran’s juggernaut probably induced the Sharifs to make peace with the establishment – their erstwhile nemesis. Obviously if elections were held sometimes in the end of 2012 or early 2013, this would further decimate the PML(N) in its citadel.
The PTI needs time to reorganise itself and to co-opt better candidates in its folds. It also wants younger voters which it considers its support base to register. Hence, it is the Sharifs who are in a hurry and not Imran.
Some analysts have contended that the recent NATO attack on a military checkpost in the Mohmand agency gunning down 26 Pakistani troops was a US ploy to divert attention from Memogate in order to bail out the beleaguered civilian government. The theory seems far-fetched, and even if true has not worked.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani has belatedly announced suspension of the “command and chain system” and has directed the ranks and cadres of the military to give a befitting response to any foreign aggression. We are told now that the decision was taken at a crucial meeting of the COAS with his military commanders a day after the NATO strike.
The question that begs an answer is that why was there such inordinate delay in announcing this important decision. On Tuesday, the Director General Military Operation (DGMO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem held a high level briefing for media persons at the GHQ in the presence of the Chief of General Staff, General Waheed Arshad. This was an appropriate forum to disclose such vital information to the media.
On the contrary, responding to a volley of questions, General Nadeem admitted that a military response to an unprovoked and deliberate NATO-ISAF attack was not a choice “owing to technological disparity”. He also disclosed that the NATO-ISAF intruders violated the SOPs of coordination despite opening of all communications channels. The DGMO admitted that the scrambling of air force was possible but was deliberately not done as it would have meant “escalating the scale of the incident”.
Now we are told a different story by the ISPR. According to the latest information, a befitting response could not be given owing to breakdown of the communication system as a result of the NATO strike and was not a strategic decision as declared by the DGMO.
There is a lot of confusion surrounding this issue and this flip-flopping is not going to help dispel it. The ISPR needs to come up with a cohesive response so it can deal with the situation and all the info flying around out there. For instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pakistan army had given permission to NATO to conduct operations in the border region attacked. Reports like these need to be refuted and a clear picture needs to be given, which Major General Nadeem failed to do.
Obviously, Major General Nadeem strictly sticking to his brief had its limitations. That is why in response to a barrage of questions from media persons, he gave the perfunctory response that the answer was beyond his brief. On one or two occasions, the CGS attempted to answer questions regarding lack of response from the military, but he too for obvious reasons was restrained.
Had General Kayani been present at the briefing, he could have given the correct picture. And the ISPR would not have to issue a response the day after to clear the air. Although media persons had been told that the COAS would be present to answer their questions, for some inexplicable reason he did not attend the briefing.
The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a veteran of patriotic War of 1812, participated in Caucasus campaign in 1851 and two years later in 1853 participated in Crimean War as a Second Lieutenant.He is considered as one of the top intellectuals of nineteenth century who understood the functioning and mindset of the army. His conclusion was 'Army is a bunch of fools headed by b….y fools'. In the light of this words of wisdom from great wise man there should be no ambiguity why there is confusion.
Dear Truth Seeker. Tolstoy was born in 1928, hence he cant be a veteran of patriotic war of 1812. He has certainly commented on army in the War and Peace but not in the words that you have used. You have taken the story a little too far. 🙂
Dear Khokhar,
Interesting observation.I was under the impression that in Pakistan only Pakistani history is distorted. Pakistanis should avoid perverting Russian History too.
He was born on September 9,1828 and died on November 20, 1910. The quip has been taken too far because of the somersault statements of the generals. It is not intended for one army. This maxim fits any army of the world.
Tolstoy is a family name so you might have meant another Tolstoy, but certaily not the author of WAR AND PEACE.
Dear Khokhar,
I stand corrected. This was his father Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy who participated in Patriotic War of 1812. Thanks for this observation. I mixed both the Tolstoys.
Dear Mr Truth Seeker,
Just another reminder it is 2011 soon to be 2012. I honestly don't see the relevance your logic in this at all. It appears that you have unsuccessfully tried to intellectualize out of context. I appreciate your reading of history but you have overstretched your self by nealry twoo hundred years.
In case you find it interesting hisotory of Pakistan Army is a good read. You will hvae to only stretchyour self back to only a few years before the making of Pakistan. This reading will give you a better understanding and sensible bearing whilst constructing your argument.
Kind regards
A Reader
Dear Mr. A Reader,
I have already read the following books about Pakistan Army.
Crossed Swords by Shuja Nawaz, The Pakistan Army by Stephen Cohen,The State of Martial Rule by Ayesha Jalal and Military Inc. by Ayesha Siddiqa.
On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon, An intimate History of Killing by Joanne Bourke and War by Gwynne Dyer have also helped me to understand the psyche of the Army.
'There is a lot of confusion surrounding this issue and this flip-flopping is not going to help dispel it '. This sentence is the reason for contextualising it.
I am a student of history and I always believe in Einstein who defined the basic truth that " Every thing has changed except our way of thinking".
And I'll share a secret with you that once I was a 'fool' too but not a b….. category.
Thanks for your kind words and advice.
Cheer up! History can be so easily forgotten. You can always live with present. And, once you are power, you can re-write it or at the least re-define it.
Truth Seeker;
what about your negative and insulting remarks about Pakistan. You should have tendered apology. You think that only you ca be truth and the others are fool. Pitty.
Name is truth seeker but hiding truth. At least mention your true name.
Saleem,
I never made a claim to be the custodian of truth. I seek truth as it is elusive. Can you point out the negative and insulting remarks. Read my comments carefully, and if you really need apologies which could help Pakistan, then please ask Pakistani generals for failure on May 2nd and November 26th.
We are all Truth Seekers; if anyone believes that he knows the whole truth ,he needs psychological examination. My real name will not help you as it will be a non existent entity for you, as is Truth Seeker. Watch ' Off The Record' of November 30th, then ask Hassan Nisar and Sheikh Rasheed to apologise for their negative and insulting remarks about Pakistani society.
And please remember while arguing take care of your temper.And rest assured your reasoning will take care of itself.
These all names mentioned by you and somany others are parasites. They are enjoying luxurious lives, getting huge compensation. To listen to their nonsense one needs tobe having steel nerves. These are the people who had made mess of every thing in Pakistan. Pakistan is perhaps the only country whose educated elite had took it to the present stage. Name any section, politicians, journals, businessmen, industriats, journalists, academicians. Who are ruling? who are working in Govt or other offices. These are all educated people. Are they not collectively responsible for this mess. Poors, labours, farmers mostly are uneducated but they are building Pakistan. Ashfaq Ahmad Late was true that Educated people had ruined this country.
Your remarks that in Pakistan you were under the impresion that only Pakistani history is distorted, were insulting for all those who are not intectually dishonest and still upright. You may say it for few but not for all enblock.
also this……gentlemen!
War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.
As quoted in Clemenceau and the Third Republic (1946) by John Hampden Jackson, p. 228; this has also become commonly paraphrased as: War is too important to be left to the generals.
Georges Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French journalist, physician and statesman. He served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and from 1917 to 1920. He is remembered for his wit and his wartime leadership of France during World War I.
I am sure these willnot be approved because It has written against owner of the paper.
Truthseeker…Very interesting observation…thank you and don't mind Mr Saleem outburst…if he is blind to distorted history taught in Pakistan…its no use conversing with him…he will defeat you with his experience…..:-)
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