What generals do, or don’t do, is rarely inconsequential in Pakistan. Having ruled for 24 out of 45 years since independence, the army has continued to call the shots even from the barracks. Fears for ‘national security’ provide a rationale for its size (500,000 men), whet its appetite for scarce resources (40 % of yearly budgets or 6 % of GNP) and reinforce its interest in government and politics.
On August 14, Gen Asif Nawaz will have served as COAS for one year. Hailed for his integrity and professionalism when he came to the job, the general’s subsequent deportment in the corridors of power is a fit subject for annual review.
Gen Nawaz inherited an army command hopelessly out of step with changing domestic and regional realities. Under his predecessor, Gen Aslam Beg, the army had connived with the ruling clique of discredited politicians led by Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Mian Nawaz Sharif to cripple law and order in Sindh, nourish a fascist party like the MQM and hound the largest political party in the country — the PPP — to distraction. The ISI bossed the Afghan mujahideen, played favourites among them and rigidly pressed ahead for a military victory against Kabul long after the Jihad had ended. It also had delusions of exporting Islamic revolution to the Central Asian republics. Gen Beg’s mistaken concreteness during the Gulf war sabotaged the government’s efforts to resuscitate US-Pakistan relations after Washington cut-off military aid in September 1990. Long years of martial law had made the army flabby, indisciplined and opportunistic. Its reputation was sullied by the vaulting political ambitions of a clique of self-righteous generals backing an indefensible status quo.
On most of these counts, it is an altogether different story today, thanks to Gen Asif Nawaz. Gone is General Hameed Gul, the soldier who openly meddled in politics, destabilised governments, ran election campaigns and disobeyed orders. Gone is blind support for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and pipe dreams of conquering Kabul for the “strategic defence” of Pakistan. Thankfully too, some US military aid — desperately needed spares and kits — is beginning to seep in. And within the army, discipline has been enforced, morale is up and unprecedented accountability has become a watchword of the day: a general and three senior offices were publicly ticked off over the Tando Bahawal tragedy, a major is being court-martialed, 35 junior officers were demoted for hooliganism in the NWFP and henceforth officers will go abroad for training only on merit rather than on the ‘sifarish’ of senior colleagues. These are no mean achievements in such a short time.
That said, Gen Asif Nawaz’s biggest challenge remains in Sindh. He promised the people of Pakistan that he would be ruthlessly fair in ‘cleaning up’ the province. Thus far he has kept his honourable word. The dacoits are indeed being knocked out in the interior of the province. The MQM’s fangs have been dented. And it is heartening to learn that the general doesn’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory of pathological PPP haters in the IJI that every Sindhi miscreant is an AZO separatist or terrorist.
But surely this is just the tip of the garbage heap. Six weeks ago, Gen Asif Nawaz publicly referred to the MQM as a “terrorist” organisation which would not be spared. Why then, people want to know, are most of its criminal leaders still at large, regrouping and reorganising in Karachi? Criminal cases have been lodged against Altaf Hussain, Azeem Tariq, Imran Farooq, Salim Shahzad, Safdar Baqri et al. When will the army haul them up before the special terrorist courts set up for exactly the sort of crimes they are alleged to have committed?
Then, there is the matter of those patharidars who are known to shield criminals and abet violence. Are we to take it that they are outside the army’s net because many among them belong to the government in power? Everyone knows that dozens of such people figure in General Nawaz’s hit list. Why has it been put into cold storage by GHQ? Are supporters of the government above the laws of this country?
There are other apprehensions too. The army seems to be propping up a government in Sindh which is, by all accounts, an illegitimate offspring of Islamabad. How long will this farce continue? And what about the fate of the most notorious son-in-law in Pakistan’s history? Is there one set of considerations for some well-connected people and quite another for ordinary citizens like us?
These are hugely embarrassing questions. But there is no way Gen Asif Nawaz can skirt them. If he hadn’t raised our expectations, we might have remained our usual cynical selves and never asked them in the first place. Now everyone expects the good general to match the quality of his words with deeds. The armed forces have been out of step with the aspirations of the people of Pakistan for a long, long time. It is time they redeemed their honour and actively pledged themselves to uphold the laws of the land without fear or favour.