Those who thought civvies got ‘em khakis, need to think again, think anew
All three sons of the Republic — Mr Khaki, Mr Civvy and Mr Journo — were at daggers drawn. Two sided against one, some said. One pitted against two, yelled others
It all started one not-so-fine morning when a hack ran a story in an influential English daily about uniformed folks being ‘told’ by un-uniformed blokes to mend their ways or brace oblivion among comity of nations. A deafening silence ensued for couple of hours after the publication of story. And then, as they say, all hell broke loose.
Alarm bells went up. An outgoing general got rattled. A sitting prime minister, feeling cornered, sacked a trusted lieutenant. The air reeked of conspiracy and betrayal. Fear ruled in the PM office, paranoia reigned in the GHQ.
All three sons of the Republic — Mr Khaki, Mr Civvy and Mr Journo — were at daggers drawn. Two sided against one, some said. One pitted against two, yelled others.
Respected, honest, conscientious media went into overdrive. The pundits told us about the horror of it all, the strategists sensed something akin of seismic shift, the observers witnessed cracks in forever fragile fort called civ-military relations.
The above four paragraphs may look as if torn from some ancient book of Epics where larger-than-life mythic characters fight battles till the right and just prevail.
How waters got muddy, muddier, muddiest
Let us get a little factual here. Assistant Editor Dawn, Cyril Almeida, did a story on 6 October 2016 titled ‘Exclusive: Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military’. The story documented the meeting between military and civilian high ups held on 3 October 2016 where both parties agreed to rein in intelligence agencies from interfering in action against militant groups in all provinces and to conclude the Pathankot investigation and restart trial of Mumbai attacks in Rawalpindi anti terrorism court.
Followed by a confrontation between then DG ISI Rizwan Akhtar and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, intervention by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to cool things up, the meeting ended with General Akhtar agreeing to tour the country and convey the message to sector commanders and apex committees.
The calm before the storm ends here.
Then came a maelstrom of clarifications terming the story not only speculative but misleading and factually incorrect and an “amalgamation of fiction and fabrication”.
Clarifications were issued, the story was condemned in its entirety, Almeida was termed an agent, and Parvaiz Rashid lost his job as information minister as he ‘failed to stop the publication of story’.
The khakis were on fire, the civvies were on the back foot. The pressmen and ladies reaped all the benefits this ‘chaos in a bathtub’ threw their way.
The khakis remained silent. They called for an inquiry commission.
A month later, on 3 November 2016, a 7-member committee was formed headed by retired Justice Aamer Raza Khan and comprising of Establishment Secretary Tahir Shahbaz, Punjab Ombudsman Najam Saeed, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwar and one representative each from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB). The committee had to look into the leaks matter and find out the persons responsible for leaking the story to Mr Almeida.
When a nation forgets to ask the most rudimentary, the most basic, the most elementary questions about its realities, it compensates for it by sacking its Rasheeds, its Fatemis, its Tehseens
In the meantime, while the committee was investigating the matter, General Raheel Sharif retired and embarked on his new job as head of the 41-member Islamic Military Alliance to fight Terrorism (IMAFT) and General Rizwan Akhtar took charge as President, National Defence University. General Qamar Javaid Bajwa was new Chief and Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar the new spymaster. The report yet in limbo.
During the last week of the cruellest month, some days after the historical Panama verdict, whispers started to surface about possible action. Many predicted action against the reporter, editor, etc. Others aimed high. No one guessed what actually was in the offing.
A tweet ‘rejects’ a directive masquerading as a notification
On the last day of April, courtesy of a missive from prime minister office, Tariq Fatemi lost his portfolio of special assistant to prime minister on foreign affairs, Principal Information Officer Rao Tahseen was told to report back to Establishment Division where action is to be taken against him in accordance with ‘Efficiency and Discipline’ Rules of 1973 and All Pakistan Newspapers Society was asked to initiate ‘disciplinary action’ against Zafar Abbas, editor Dawn, Cyril Almeida, and Dawnnewspaper.
Within minutes of the missive, comes a 19-word tweet that puts to rest the new found bonhomie between civvies and the khakis.
For the greater clarity, the tweet is reproduced here.
‘Notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected’.
The ‘operative part’ of the tweet is in bold so that focus can be placed where it is required, needed and desired.
Amidst the day to day cycle of news, dull happenings, routine events, and startling accidents it is quite natural to forget the elephant in the room. In this case the truthfulness and veracity of the news story itself. Where is the good old some-whistleblower-spilled-beans spirit? Yeah, right, it is dead and gone.
In our quest to catch the herald, we’ve all but forgotten about the message he conveyed. Pakistan is slowly edging towards global isolation, that was the message. Take action against militants across the board, that was the message. The world is reluctant to give us a patient hearing, that was the message. About time to put our house in order, that was the message. What we instead did was, we brushed all them messages under the thick, fluffy rug of ‘National Security’ and pretended they ceased to exist.
The so-called Dawn Leaks started its life as a fabricated and fictitious drivel, then grew up as a planted story, and matured as attacker who breached National Security.
The much-feared phrase ‘breach of national security’ means that one has crossed the last red line and needs to repent, failure to do so will invite the wrath of powers that were, powers that be and powers that will always be.
Whatever way one looks at it, General Bajwa has successfully managed to cast a new image for himself, previously considered as PM’s General, Post-Notification Rejection Tweet now he has the necessary room to be more assertive, more prominent and closer to his predecessor.
What ‘those in the know’ say
The first casualty of Dawn Leaks, then Minister of Information Pervaiz Rasheed, finally broke his silence in the immediate aftermath of the directive from prime minister office and said that it is not the responsibility of the information minister to block news. If the duty of an information minister is to stop the publication of stories, then this should be taught to journalism students at the university level. Rashid, speaking for the first time after his resignation, in an attempt to preach how democracies work said, “In a democratic society, you inform reporters of the factual situation and give them your point of view, but you cannot force them to do it your way or not.”
Notable security and political analyst Imtiaz Gul termed the whole incident unfortunate, saying that primary institutions of the state should not play out their differences openly.
“It should not have happened. See, the thing is state institutions should be honest to each other and take mutual concerns seriously and try to address them and, if they fail to do so, they create space for disagreement that has negative consequences for the image of the country,” he said.
“The whole world knows about differences between Pakistan army and the political government. It is beyond me why ISPR is monitoring the goings-on in the country. How can ISPR reject the missive issued by the prime minister?” questioned Asma Jahangir, prominent Supreme Court advocate and human rights activist. Jahangir said if the government had handled matters better, things would’ve been different.
Who got whom?
There are two problems with shooting the messenger. Firstly, it doesn’t solve anything. Secondly, much effort and energy gets wasted in disposing off the body. We’ve been killing, decapitating, and mutilating our messengers to save our messiahs.
In a land where solace is sought in refuge (read subterfuge) of a messiah, messengers are abhorred to death. When a nation forgets to ask the most rudimentary, the most basic, the most elementary questions about its realities, it compensates for it by sacking its Rasheeds, its Fatemis, its Tehseens.
And its Almeidas and its Zafars, well, they undergo ‘disciplinary action’.
