For those living under a rock: the army chief announced last week that he won’t seek an extension in his service when he is to retire this year.
“(The) Pakistan Army is a great institution. I don’t believe in extension and will retire on the due date. Efforts to root out terrorism will continue with full vigour and resolve. Pakistan’s national interest is supreme and will be safeguarded at all costs.”
These words of the army chief were relayed by the DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, through his personal Twitter account (that particular oddity deserves another Media Watch article) and put to rest — perhaps not completely — speculations that started perhaps as early as a year ago.
The media, not unexpectedly, reacted in a lively manner.
First, there was the general’s fan club. ARY’s Dr Danish felt a slight tremor in his voice when he asked the general to rethink his decision.
Equally emphatic but slightly less emotional was Geo’s Amir Liaquat, whose plea to the general was slightly moderated (“I’m sure there are other generals in the institution as well”) and well as self-aware (“I’m sure there would be people on social media saying that he is such a boot-polish. Well, I am.”)
But others, the ones who cheered on the decision, were also singing praises of the general and his professionalism. So it was a good week for Raheel Sharif, regardless of how one sliced it.
Amongst those who welcomed the decision was one Talat Hussain. Mr Hussain is entitled to his views, and those are, broadly speaking, in the blame-the-politicians camp. One can’t expect much nuance from this lot, even if Mr Hussain is the better one from within the latter.
Consider his tweet following the general’s announcement. That it was a good decision but the PM should not “play politics” the next appointment, come this November.
One wonders what that means. The appointment is political if the PM does it. And how, really, does one play politics when choosing amongst five or six generals?
Did the current prime minister “do politics” when he chose Raheel Sharif, that too, over two generals who were more senior to him?
Yes, General Raheel Sharif is hot on a roll of popularity these days, but let it not be forgotten that his predecessor also went through a phase of hero-worship.
If Sharif’s a man’s-man demeanour inspires confidence in a terror-struck populace, then Kayani’s mystique and rumoured intelligence had many army devotees weak at the knees. In fact, one recalls a picture that was doing the rounds online during the Kayani heyday; written under it was something to the effect that the chief even looks like the Quaid. Well, it was a passing resemblance. Just the way Tahir-ul-Qadri had remarked that Raheel Sharif looked like Akbar the Great.
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The Army chief is selected for a tenure of three years. He is supposed to retire on its completion. In the steady decline of standards in our praetorian state, we are now at a stage where we applaud our military leaders for doing their bare-basic job, much like we would a four-year-old for finishing her vegetables. Just the way in 2013, when the nation saw its first transition of democratic power, there was much effusive praise of General Kayani. This even seemed to wash away the behind-the-scenes manipulations that he is alleged to have been doing in that very period of time.