The two chief’s legacy
Recent week has seen the exit from national scene of Pakistan’s two important personalities: Gen Parvez Kayani as Pakistan’s army chief and Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice of our Supreme Court.
Much has been written about the so-called accomplishments of these two gentlemen. Accolades have been showered upon them over such bizarre and trivial things as chain smoking during official meetings and throwing the legal files on the floor of the court room.
But the fact is that these two highly powerful exiting officials in bullet-proof luxurious Mercedes’s with palatial retirement homes and benefits to last generations leave behind a country in tatters. By all international indices of the UN, Transparency International, FP, HRW etc, Pakistan has plummeted to world’s 15 worst nations in terms of failing states, security, and people’s standards of living.
Whatever their achievements – difficult to exactly pin down as these are in concrete, quantifiable terms – these two powerful figures could have done much better for the stability, growth and security of Pakistan. But they didn’t. Between them they missed some excellent opportunities to act and to deliver. And because of their failures the nation is worse off than it ever was.
Let’s first take the case of Gen Kayani. The report that that even the former chief of the army is too fearful of living in his own house post retirement and needs to hide in his own country from the enemy sums up the state of defense and security of the country.
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‘A military commander’s ultimate measure of success is whether he was able to prevail and destroy the enemy he was confronted with. Judged by this yardstick, can there be any doubt that Kayani doesn’t pass muster.’
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Kayani’s enduring legacy is that he leaves behind an enemy which is now more powerful and stronger to threaten the country’s existence than when he first assumed office of the COAS.
With the crack American troops offering to provide combat support from across the border, Gen Kayani was presented with a propitious opportunity to prove his mettle and that of his soldiers under his command to defeat a much smaller force of militants and claim victory.
And what did the COAS do? He dilly-dallied on one pretext or another, choosing to play politics rather than fight and confront this vile and blood thirsty enemy.
A military commander’s ultimate measure of success is whether he was able to prevail and destroy the enemy he was confronted with. Judged by this yardstick, can there be any doubt that Kayani doesn’t pass muster.
The Taliban enemy during his reign devastated the country and pummeled his forces like never before. Far from being obliterated the enemy became stronger.
Let’s turn our attention to Iftikhar Chaudhry, the self-anointed crusader of people’s rights. With the people overwhelmingly behind him, he failed to take steps to reform the corrupt, paralyzed, dysfunctional system of delivering justice to the people, and thus missed a golden opportunity. More than that, in his headlong drive for power grab, the outgoing chief justice misused his authority to weaken and undermine the government and to usurp the constitutional powers of the other two branches of the democratic set-up.
His actions to disqualify an elected head of government, to legalise the overthrow of the constitution and lawful government, to dismiss judges, civil servants, to fix prices of commodities etc, were illegal, and in flagrant violation of the constitution.
He leaves behind a trail of wrong decisions and whimsical orders that are in violation of our Constitution and established principles of law.
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‘In his headlong drive for power grab, the outgoing chief justice misused his authority to weaken and undermine the government and to usurp the constitutional powers of the other two branches of the democratic set-up.’
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In the final analysis, both these personalities each in their own ways have been hugely instrumental in decimating the writ of the government, destroying the defence of the country, trashing the rule of law and in contributing significantly towards the failure of the state itself.
Our nation has sunk to its lowest depths – economically, politically and socially. As such, we cannot afford mediocre, inept, self-promoting, power-hungry decision makers.
We urgently need fearless, visionary, reformist leaders in all spheres who will act and think out of the box with one and only one, single focused goal in mind: to move the country towards strength, progress, prosperity, rationality, equality and modernity.
Otherwise, as we all know, that our next step towards complete failure of the state would be a quick and short one!
The writer is a US-based attorney, author, independent analyst and writer.
Among all the hullabaloo created by Ch Iftikhar and Gen Kayani's last days in office and chaos, this is an objective analysis by the learned writer. Hope Pakistan learns its lessons from the mistakes of these two personalities, and don't repeat them.
I agree but somewhat hesitatingly, especially with a sad heart in case of the ex COAS. Kayani I think Kayani Saheb did his best but w and achieved nothing.as not bold or very strong against the enemy Taliban. I don't know why, its a mystery. Ex Ch was clueless about law, he just wasted the time and resources of our poor country for PR. Kamal Saheb is correct, we need men or women of vision and courage to lead Pakistan, hopefully so..
@Dr Khan.Right opinion by you. But my question is that, have we ever in our history learned from our mistakes? Unfortunately the answer is no. Once again an excellent, calm and cool article by Mr Tausif. In my opinion we are emotional people, rich or poor, we don't listen to reason. Just like the ex CJ. WE must shed our obsession with religion first. If China is our best friend, why dont we try to follow the ways and methods of Chinese people. Thanks PT for this writing.
Agree with author that our country is in very bad shape, and isolated in the world. Now even Bangladesh hate. us and Pakistan, like India, Iran, Afghanistan, all our neighbours. Why, because of the massacres and atrocities committed on their people by our country's Islamist, Jihadi terror groups like Jamaat Islami, Jundullah, Taliban, Let, LJ, SSP, Hizbul Mujahideen, etc, etc, Ex CJfreed all the terrorists and ex COAS did not attack these enemies. New brave leaders are needed now. Good article.
Iftikhar Ch. also caused billions in economic losses to the country because of his stupid, greedy, illegal intervention in Pak Steels Mills, Turkish power boats, Riq Dikho mining and other cases besides also sabotaging democracy and the elected civilian govt etc. The whole judicial system in Pak must be completely changed since it is completely corrupt, inefficient and rotten like the ex CJ. Also this Taliban and Jihadi enemy must be crushed and finished like Sri Lanka first of all..excellent opinion analysis.
Concur fully. hope modern and good decision makers emerge in Pakistan as the writer say….very correct
All Pak people fully support the Army's actions against the Taliban murderers. This enemy's strategy is two fold. First Talibans attack and kill our soldiers, police, civilians , and then when our Army retaliates they use their stooges and front men like Imran, Hamid Gul, Abbasi, Munawwar Hussain, Fazl, etc and media to raise hue and cry about civilian casualties.. This is an evil enemy. Mr Kamal is right on the dot
@Anwar..You are right Sir. In bangladesh people are burning Pakistani flag and effigies of Imran Khan for many days, all because of the actions of Jamat e Islami and its crazy supporters like Imran Khan. Pak image is being destroyed because of these fundoos. Excellent..
Pakistan has been destroyed by Islamic fascists, ranging from Jamaat Islami to Imran Jhan to Laskars, Talibans, Tablighi Jammat, Hizbs etc, etc no future if we fail to confront and defeat these regressive, anti people, anti Pakistan nuts…
kudos to you ,a clear headed article, no beating around bush, no cover up, , truthful, spade a spade calling…thank you
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