With the nation celebrating Defense Day today (Thursday), two Senate treasury members came down hard on the former military leadership and held former generals responsible for adopting flawed and faulty policies that dragged the country into military adventurism that cost Pakistan dearly.
Speaking on a point of order, Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash of the Awami National Party (ANP) took to task former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf for dragging the country into Kargil war that led to the martyrdom of dozens of soldiers.
“Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed was martyred due to the adventurism adopted by Musharraf in Kargil. When the then army chief and corps commanders refused to accept bodies of our martyrs, Indians said they would announce awards for the martyrs. Only then we accepted the martyrs,” he contended. Bangash said lots of blood had been spilled and thousands of precious lives had been lost due to the wrong policies of army generals. He said there was a need to correct the direction of the army leadership. He also called for debating the defense budget and for adopting a mechanism to monitor defense spending. “Civilian governments always clean the mess created by generals. We lost Sir Creek, Siachen, West Pakistan and lots more. The military only triumphed Presidency and the PM’s House in the past,” he alleged.
Calling for presenting the defense budget in parliament, Bangash said the defense budget should be debated thoroughly. Senator Kazim Khan of the PPP said Kargil war was a mistake committed by four generals, including Musharraf, General Aziz, General Mahmood and another general who had even kept then prime minister of the country Nawaz Sharif in the dark. He said there was a need to highlight the blunders made by the army leadership in the past. Khan said just in Kargil, more soldiers had been martyred compared to the losses suffered in two wars fought in 1965 and 1971. Senator Sehr Kamran of the PPP said she saluted soldiers who laid down their lives while defending the country. Referring to the Defense Day, she lauded the first report of the Senate Standing Committee on Defense and said Senator Mushahid Hussain had done a great job.
Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the PML-Q said the Defense Committee of the Senate would work to formulate a National Defense Strategy Document taking all political forces on board. He said this would also plug gaps between the forces and the civilian authority. He also laid the first report of the Senate Committee on Defense and Defense Production in the House. Mushahid said the committee would keep working for improving civil-military relations and parliament was the first line of defense of the country.
ANP leader Shahi Syed called the dialogue between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) a conspiracy against the people of Sindh, but PPP and MQM members of the Upper House clarified that no conspiracy was being hatched. Speaking on a point of order, Syed said it was alarming to note when the three provinces had rejected the local bodies system introduced by General Pervez Musharraf in year 2001, why had the Sindh government decided to revive it. “This has been done without taking three other coalition partners in the loop and only two parties have decided the fate of Sindhis. The ANP, PML-Q and PML-F have been totally ignored,” he said. Syed said it was a conspiracy to divide Sindh into rural and urban areas and said his party condemned the decision and would not bow to it.
Countering allegations, Col (r) Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM said local bodies elections were the foundation of any democracy and holding the elections was mandatory under the constitution. “Let me assure my honorable colleague that no sinister thing is coming due to local body elections. This is actually reviving the fundamental right of the people of Sindh,” he added. He said around the globe, all civic services were handled by local bodies and the ANP senator should look into the matter by ignoring all conspiracy theories.
Local bodies system of previous Military dictator was thousand times better than this present system. As far as Kargil Adventure is concerned there is a need to discuss the Military adventurism of all the Military regimes as well as the role played by the Military during the civilian govt, keeping in mind the action of FC in Balochistan.
If these senators do not want army to intervene to save the country, then they should govern the country better. No point in telling the army not to intervene, when you are messing up the country big time.
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