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| The Pak army’s game plan | |
By Farooq Ganderbali
It is a report that deserved wider coverage than what it received thus far. I am referring to a recent speech of former ISI chief Hamid Gul, “considered by some to be the most dangerous man in Pakistan”, wherein he was back at his pet theme with a new spin.
Gul is highly opinionated; there are no two views on this faculty of this former army spymaster. He speaks with a certain authority and conviction on internal security issues. It is this trait that makes him a much sought after Khaki in the seminar circuit even two decades after he retired to don the cap of a defence analyst.
His latest-speak was in the context of Rangers’s report on Karachi’s crime syndicates aligned with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Both MQM leader- the London based Altaf Hussain and PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari have earned the wrath of the Army by their outburst against the Permanent Establishment of the country. Why Altaf and Asif attacked the Army is not material but the fact that matter is both leaders have been pilloried though they have beaten a hasty retreat and their cheer leaders have gone into damage control mode.
Now it is this backdrop that has provided the perfect setting to Hamid Gul-Speak. According to Urdu daily, Ausaf, he made two interesting observations. One is that the West is looking to destabilise Pakistan and that the Constitution can be suspended without much ado during the prevailing circumstances. Well, he has been reverting to this plank quite regularly for a long while.
Way back in 2009 in an interview with the Foreign Policy Journal, he articulated the view that the U.S., Israel, and India are behind efforts to destabilize Pakistan. So, in a sense, there is nothing new in the accusation but it has acquired a new meaning with the covert efforts of GHQ Shura to marginalise the leadership of PPP and MQM as never before.
The second point, which Gul makes, is something new though. “It is important for Gen Raheel Sharif (Army chief) to come to power for a few days as the politicians were destroying the country”, he says.
In a sense this observation is also not new either. He had already spoken on the theme in separate interviews with Dawn and The News International in early June and quickly invited the wrath of Parliament.
On Friday June 12, the lawmakers in the upper house of Pakistan Parliament, Senate, took strong exception to Hameed Gul’s interviews and demanded his trial on sedition charges. Yet, if the Gul-Speak has acquired a menacing edge it is because of the concerted attacks on Asif Ali Zardari and Altaf Hussain.
“Zardari’s move (visit) to Dubai has raised a lot of questions, he remarked and demanded that political parties were made accountable to the military and the people of the country, according to the Ausaf report on Gul’s latest speech in the seminar circuit.
Any layman with rudimentary knowledge of Pakistan scene will accept that Hamid Gul is no ordinary former soldier. There is so much in public domain that gives an account of how he diverted the Mujahideen engaged in the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan to Kashmir to give sleepless nights to India.
His role as a close aide of Benazir Bhutto in establishing the Taliban militia needs no recap nor the US charge that its one time CIA -friendly - Gul has ties with the likes of Al Qaeda. Even now he takes pride in his creation, Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), the short-lived alliance of religious groups and conservative parties, to checkmate Benazir Bhutto from winning the 1988 election.
Gul’s constant refrain is that Pakistan politicians are corrupt. And he, therefore, sees a justification in Army’s take over. “As long as politicians were corrupt, the Army would interfere in the state's affairs”, the former ISI chief told DawnNews while speaking in the popular “Faisala Awam Ka” programme on Oct 30, 2012.
He elaborated thus: “Politicians are crooks; if they continue the path they are on, then the army will continue to intervene in the state's affairs”. There is no gain saying the fact that across Pakistan politicians are held in low esteem, whatever be the contributory factors, and the Man in the Uniform is seen as the saviour of the land, and its honour.
Returning to his favourite theme in his interview with The News on Thursday June 11, 2015, Gul was more explicit. “People would demand the blood of politicians and won’t listen to them in the presence of the Objectives Resolution”, he said and declared “If the army did not take over, there would be a civil war in the country”.
He did slip in some caveats but these are neither here nor there. For instance, he remarked that every ruler in Pakistan had committed mistakes. He also asked the Army to “get rid of the black sheep within its ranks”, and hold “others accountable” for their wrong deeds.
Gul is, however, unwavering on what the Army should do, and it is a surgical operation, according to him. “The army should take the country’s command for a short period and act professionally”.
Should the rantings of a former general deserve to be taken seriously? Yes, certainly, if the General is Hamid Gul.
Do the circumstances impart significance to Gul-speak? Undoubtedly, when unfolding events show deliberate attempt to discredit if not eliminate the MQM as a political force, and to undermine Asif Ali Zardari as a politician of substance. Because, there are no two views on who sets the ‘agenda’ in Pakistan.
When the Army Chief declares, as Gen Pervez Kayani did weeks before the 2008 general elections, that the Army will remain neutral during the polls, the opposite is to be expected. “It (Kayani-speak) set the ‘agenda’ for positive change in Pakistan. What followed in the next six years was the direction set by the ‘permanent establishment’ and that is for democratic Pakistan, but certain policies and positions would remain in the hands of the establishment”, says noted columnist Mazhar Abbas. He has an interesting take on why Benazir Bhutto did not re-open her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s trial. And it is that as a prime minister she simply followed the military writ for her own survival, and, therefore, dared not to re-open the case.
“My father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a powerful politician, leader of the Islamic world, founder of 1973 Constitution, father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme. If they hanged him just because he warned Zia of trial under Article VI, I am too weak a woman, whose family had been destroyed. Here, we may be representative of the people but we don’t set the agenda, we just follow and in the process try to establish civilian writ”, Abbas quotes Benazir as telling him when asked why she did not reopen Bhutto’s trial and why she accepted ‘controlled democracy’ imposed by the GHQ Shura. (Abbas Column: Who sets the ‘agenda’ in Pakistan? The News International May 23, 2014)
By all accounts, the unfolding crisis in Pakistan has all the classic elements of the situation witnessed in the run up to a military takeover in the past. Ipso facto it should not lend credence to an alarm. But the recent developments - launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb last June that ignored Prime Minister Sharif’s efforts to bring the Taliban to the talks table, establishment of military courts, and GHQ usurping Foreign Office role in the Afghan policy point emphatically that there may be no dull moments in Pakistan ahead.
(The author is a Freelance Journalist and columnist)
(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the Scoop News)
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