What led to the COAS’s announcement and what will follow
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif is ready to go to ‘any length’ to make Karachi secure and free of terrorism. His statement, as issued by the military mouthpiece ISPR, is not just about Karachi.
It speaks about much more. It suggests a wider divide between the civilian and army leadership with regard to the Karachi operation.
It’s not only MQM which is uncomfortable with the ‘Karachi Operation’, but the PPP-led Sindh government has also blamed the Rangers crossing limits on a few occasions. Of course, there have been several instances when the law-enforcers have been blamed of being caught crossing the ‘red lines’ set by the provincial regime.
The outburst by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday further exposed civil-military cracks as the minister blamed the government for striking an unholy alliance of ‘muk-muka’ between the PML-N and PPP leadership. Hence, the minister indirectly blamed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for ‘shielding’ the corruption of the opposition leader and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari.
With the civil-military strife again mounting, General Raheel Sharif needs to comprehend the ground realities: Going alone against ‘corrupt rulers’ might backfire as the army would need political backing.
Nawaz Sharif is the only option for the army to count on, at least for the time being.
The establishment has already divorced Imran Khan who blinked when he was only a few steps from the ladder he wanted to climb. Perhaps, the immature and non-serious approach during and after the dharna has compelled the army’s top brass to conclude that he is not the man capable of getting the country out of the quagmire.
The prime minister is known shooting in his own foot. He cannot share power with anyone: not even with his younger brother. Mr Sharif has failed to work with any of his army commanders.
Be it was General Aslam Baig, Asif Nawaz Janjua or Jahangir Karamat, Nawaz Sharif failed to reconcile with the army leadership. Then came the dominant Pervez Musharraf who threw Sharif out and jailed him. But through this all Nawaz Sharif transformed himself into an anti-army and pro-India political hawk.
Then came General Raheel Sharif who was again chosen by Nawaz Sharif despite being at number three on the seniority list, even after a public commitment by Sharif that he would appoint senior-most army officer if he had the opportunity to appoint an army chief in future.
Perhaps Sharif felt that an army officer from his political support base of Lahore would be more loyal to his Raiwind Palace than to the GHQ — a blunder which reflects Sharif has been unable to understand the institution of the armed forces. It also reflects that the prime minister fails to differentiate between army officers and bureaucrats who have become personal servants to the House of Sharifs.
The civilian regime has ignited the fire this time around through a calculated leak of information about the extension offer made to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif.
I broke the story of the extension offer made to General Raheel Sharif on January 9. But actually, seasoned journalist and anchorperson, Mr Arif Nizami had broken the news almost a week before my story was published.
Since then, gossip abounded in the political circles about the extension offer.
No one, however, came forward to contradict or authenticate the claim — either from the defence ministry or the information ministry. Even the mouthpieces of the prime minister Nawaz Sharif — the bunch of foolish media managers of the government, including some ambitious but brainless MNAs – was quiet, a clear hint that the story was based on facts and the media gurus of the prime minister’s secret media cell wanted to gain strategic advantage out of the disclosure.
After several brainstorming sessions, the army came up with a rebuttal on January 24 — almost two weeks after the story made the headlines, with the Army chief saying an unequivocal ‘no’ to the extension offer.
Perhaps the army’s rebuttal was a shrewd step. The army chief now is moving with a definite target and a timeline — he has around ten months and the challenges he is faced with are huge. So he would go fast with a clear-headed approach. This might shake up the entire political elite.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has also accused the Rangers of ‘acting beyond their authority’ in Karachi and asked its chief to ‘limit’ movement of his men in line with the rules after the Rangers soldiers “raided” the Sindh Building Control Authority and the Lines Area Development Project offices.
But the major bombshell was exploded two days back when the Rangers personnel told a court that extortionists were submitting their money with ‘one individual’ in Karachi — pinpointing the former president.
It is also no secret that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been protecting the top leaders of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with a fear that if this operation against corruption allowed to continue, sooner or later his own government would also have to face the music.
On the contrary, the military claims that despite initial successes, the operation against banned outfits was now becoming counterproductive due to failure of agencies to block the flow of illicit money. They also claim that the terrorists were now getting a chunk of the corruption money which flows through the same tunnels as used by the terrorists.
It seems as if the civilian leaders of this day have no capacity and capability to establish a working relationship with the GHQ. Though Asif Zardari managed this relationship despite rough waters, however, the army moved court against his own envoy to Washington, Mr Husain Haqqani.
The recent discord took another turn when the PML-N government refused to take any practical action against Haqqani and his wife, Farahnaz Ispahani, who have been openly advocating and maligning the army’s top leadership with political complacency.
Farahnaz Ispahani was invited on 13 January 2016 by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) to launch her newly written book titled ‘Purifying the Land of the Pure – Pakistan ’s Religious Minorities’.
During the presentation she said the he basic ideology of Pakistan i.e., to make a nation on the basis of religion, is fundamentally wrong. She accused Pakistan’s army for persecuting the Bengalis as a separate ethnic group which was considered closer to the Hindu Bengalis due to similar language and culture. She also raised the issue of the plight of minorities in Pakistan, putting the blame on the army’s support to jihadi elements.
One might understand the freedom of speech of any individual. But no one can be allowed to spit venom against state institutions and policies in the enemy state. But this nothing new as Haqqani has been advocating the US opinion-makers to cut Pakistan’s aid and support India.
Only in December 2015, while the US prepared to sell F-16s to Pakistan, Haqqani warned the US Congress that such fighter jets would ‘end up being used against India’ and not against the terrorists.
“The Obama administration’s consideration of a nuclear deal with Pakistan, just like its decision a few months ago to sell almost $1 billion in US-made attack helicopters, missiles and other equipment to Pakistan will fuel conflict in South Asia without fulfilling the objective of helping the country fight Islamist extremists or limit its nuclear arsenal,” Husain Haqqani said during a prepared presentation submitted ahead of a Congressional hearing on ‘Civil Nuclear Cooperation with Pakistan: Prospects and Consequences to the Terrorism, Non-proliferation, and Trade Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs’.
“Unless Pakistan changes its worldview and its compulsive competition with its much larger neighbour, even in violation of international commitments, American weapons will end up being used to fight or menace India and perceived domestic enemies instead of being deployed against jihadists,” he said, giving a clean chit to the Indian open threats to Pakistan and secret funding to terrorist outfits like Da’ish and TTP.
But the prime minister, who is dying to restart peace talks with India, never took up the matter with his Indian counterpart as to why such vicious elements are allowed to spread venom against Pakistan on Indian soil if Indian really wants peace.
It is about time for the prime minister and the army chief to rise to the challenges the country is faced with so both don’t waste their energies on internal bickering.
