And knowing when to leave
To be fair to the ISI chief, he has not himself asked for another extension. So the blame for propagating this dullard idea should not be placed on him. Certain sections of the press, more loyal than the king are doing their thing, in not too subtle a manner. One went to the extent of putting words to the effect in the mouth of the American ambassador, whom this paper has on good authority said no such thing.
Opposition to the extension should not necessarily be construed as a verdict on the incumbent. The fact of the matter is that the military prides itself for the systematic execution of directives; that for every superannuation, there is a whole smorgasbord of capable officers for the higher ups – or, in this case, the prime minister – to choose from. Times like these are ones that put those vehemently made assertions to the test. Systems matter, individuals do not. Should not.
Were one to make an assessment of General Pasha’s performance as the military’s spymaster, there could be much to question. The Abbottabad operation took place on his watch. So did the Mehran base attack. As did the scores upon scores of missing persons cases in Balochistan and other parts of the country. General Pasha’s tenure also saw the terror of 2009 (not to imply that the other years were dramatically better).
But, again, the above instances shouldn’t be taken as an indictment of the incumbent; maybe it is a comment on the efficiency of the agency as a whole. Its role as an intelligence agency has been compromised over the years because of other duties that are not legally in its ambit. The establishment of a political cell and one for the management of the media (not a PR department, the reader should note, but one for the management and monitoring of journalists) are some examples of that. When departments go about doing all sorts of things, their principal job is bound to suffer; hence the slew of intelligence failures.
In professional armies the world over, war heroes have known to have been kicked upstairs or eased out. War heroes.
An out of context write up. Probably not required at all. Let the time come and see what happens. Like other media gossips, this again is a prove of involvement in non issues.
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