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An open letter to the Chief of Army Staff
General Sahib, I have been a silent admirer of you and your methods for a long time now.
You have impressed all...
General Sahib, I have been a silent admirer of you and your methods for a long time now.
You have impressed all and sundry with your charm, your cool, your foresight and your prudent outlook on matters of great importance. You have admirers in the Motherland, in the Enemy Nation across the border, the Great Red North and the Imperial Kingmaker, a feat that even your skilled predecessor struggled to achieve. And yet, respected sir, I have a bone to pick with you: Where is my military coup? I have waited with bated breath for you to step up to the plate and rid us of this corrupt, ineffective, incompetent and unpleasant dispensation, and put the country back on the path of progress and unbridled nationalistic fervour.
I have bitten my nails in moments of crisis, waiting for you to appear on national television looking your usual dapper self, with an inspirational picture of the Quaid in the background, announcing the wrap-up of this nonsensical farce that has been running for two years now. And yet, you have not lived up to my expectations. I only have one question on my parched lips: Where is my military coup? I sat through the tedious Long March hoping you would seize the moment and send home these misguided champions of democracy and people power, only to see you display a reverential- yet-frustrating measure of restraint.
I was on the edge of my seat, laddoos ready, during all of December 2009 hoping your friends and admirers in the media would finally convince you to heed their prophecies and put in place the ingenious and admirable Minus-One Formula. And yet: Where is my military coup? You went to the United States and were wined and dined by the most fashionable members of the World Capital’s foreign policy apparatus. You got your Boy, Mr Foreign Minister, to schmooze with the former First Lady and get cute pictures taken together that were mocked the world over, while you got down to the real business of deal-making with the powers-that-be. What a skillful move that was, General sahab — I must say I was left rather awestruck and dazzled by your aura.
You also went to Europe and charmed our Nato allies with your great acumen and insights into the War and our nation’s crucial rule in its endgame. And all I could think was how a son of the soil was telling the world about the rightful place our great nation deserves in the galaxy of global powers. After Mumbai, when the Enemy Nation sent its fighter jets over for a brief reconnaissance mission, you drove the enemy jets back over the border. You took pictures and nonchalantly warned the offenders that we’ll ‘’bring them down’’ next time.
I felt proud to be a Pakistani that day, realising you were guarding not just our physical borders, but also keeping watch on our much-maligned and always-threatened ideological frontiers, a task that the current dispensation, with its motley crew of misguided, traitorous, anti-Pakistan separatist loonies, is ill-suited to accomplish. And when the journalist from across the border wrote a two-part piece on you in The News, profiling you in great depth and showing reluctant admiration, I fawned with him. And yet, General sahIb, your time at the helm is running out, and I am afraid that you will not avail of the opportunities that are presenting themselves.
I implore you to reconsider this restrained approach. You rid us of the monsters in Swat, and you can do so with those in Islamabad as well. I urge you to step up and claim what you were destined for so that no other dispirited man like myself can longingly ask the question: Where is my military coup?
The writer blogs at Gulbadan.
Published in the Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2010.
Reader Comments (13)
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What an optimist: “And yet, General sahIb, your time at the helm is running out”Recommend
Hello Mr Gulbadan Bano,What sort of drugs are you on?Recommend
Well the guy is right and wrong. the real coupe must come from within Pakistan’s youth under an able leadership, which at this times seems really far fetched. For prinitng this open letter at least one thing is for certain. i am giving up the rogue journalists called The NEWS and Jang for Express Tribune.Recommend
This is superrrrrrrrrrr!!! hats off to u S Gulbadan! You spoke my heart out. Excellent.Recommend
Sorry Gulbadan, the Army tried to prop up the State many times,but failed. Running a State isn’t the job of the Army. We know that the hard way, and the Army does too. At the same time the so called politicians stand exposed for what that are: self-seekers, incompetent and quarrelsome.
I don’t know where we go from here. Does anybody?Recommend
I don’t think everyone got the joke. Oh well.Recommend
o. So this dude was joking. come one folks, he is on no drugs. pretty stupid idea for a joke though.Recommend
Humor is the preserve of the few. It sometimes escapes even the keen minds of those who have it.
The topic however is a significant one, although presented in the guise of humor. I believe we have people of keen intelligence and talent in this county. I would request them to give thought to the question I’ve raised.
Although not averse to someone taking over the role of the Dictator in order to restore the abused and corrupted State back to the dream of its Founder, I’m convinced that you need more than a single team, no matter how sincere and competent, to run a State on permanent footing.
The idea of representative government didn’t start from Greece only. It was practiced by other peoples as well. Panchaiat and Jiga are such examples. Let’s not forget that our ancestors had established rule by consensus over a thousand years ago.
If you can’t run a family unit peacefully and effectively without taking due care of the views of its members, how can you can you run a country otherwise?Recommend
If I were Chief of Army Staff, having seen the fate of previous “DICTATORS”, I would act on the request of the Supreme Court if called upon to do so and take following actions rather than imposing another martial law:-
Immediately arrest and put behind the bars all 8500 persons required by the NAB.
Ensure that they are not released by any one unless tried by the courts of law.
I would meanwhile let Prime Minister Gilani to continue as such.
Advise Prime minister to take necessary steps to identify and bring all those dignitaries / elites found involved in corruption / fake degrees and bring them to justice and get their cases decided on priority so that all those convicted are debarred from participating in future elections and holding of any ppublic office.
Request the Suppereme Court along with Islamic Nazriati Counsil to point out flaws in our constitution specially those articles which are conflicting with the Islamic teashings, such as immunity of President, education level of parliamentarians as Islam lays down a lot of emphasis on education. The first aya was Iqra be-ism-e Rabb-e-kalla-zee….. along with hadiths on the subject.
Uneducated assemly carries out lagislature and creates problems for the Supreme court in interpretation and implementation etc etc.
If need be, we can have two assemblies, an educated one for legislature and the other for general administration in their respective constituencies
Having done all these in a period of six months or so, advise PM to nominate a caretaker government for an interim period of three to four months and hold General Elections in which only those persons are allowed to participate who are havin clean record and are good administrators.Recommend
alas it only took two yearsRecommend
Martial Law is not an answer to the problem. It is “Freedom of speach” & “justice” which has given quentom jump to the west. Who has given the right to elected leaders to go beyond law. Why the law makers themselves are not tried by law. The Army should this time stand behind Judisory & say” You find the accused, we will fix him”.Recommend
If Martial law was the answer to our problems, then Pakistan should have been the most prosperous country in the world because we have been cursed (not blessed) with this evil for most parts of our existence. As regards corrupt politicians, they would have been eroded if the process of elections was allowed to continue. Mind you there are no short cuts, we have to breed democracy , good or bad and it will come of age and flourish if there are no more interruptions and hats off to General Kiani who understands that the involvement of army is many steps backward !Recommend
First off, I don’t understand what is up with these OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT, COAS, General Musharaf, CJ and all these. Are you guys coming up with these articles just for the sake of it?
Why do we only see what we want to see? There is so much with this COAS which you may or may not know but you didn’t mention here. He promoted all the people in his closed circle, prolonged the careers of the people whose retirements were due, got rid of several who were/are the asset to our country. Let me give you an example, I am sure you know General Bilal Omer Khan (Shaheed), the guy who embraced martyrdom in the Parade Lane bombings, he was an ace officer, true office material, the guy was a General and would take out ACs from his office, not use his staff car, talk to his everyone (even his batman) by saying “AAP”, COAS superseded him. I can list 15 other people here I know personally who were set aside in favor of officers who have roots going back to Mir Jaffer/Mir Saddiq and military coups.
Your article, my friend, shows only one side of the story. Please do some more research and try to depict the entire picture.Recommend