Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is working to repair Pakistan Army’s wounded pride in the bitter aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a humiliation that has strained US-Pakistani relations and raised questions about the top general’s own standing.
Retired and serving officers interviewed by The Associated Press spoke of seething anger within army ranks over the May 2 top-secret raid by US Navy SEALS, undetected by Pakistan’s military.
The raid set off a nationalist backlash: The usually untouchable army was sharply criticised in the press and on television talk shows, people demonstrated here in the capital demanding accountability, and open calls were made for the resignation of Gen Kayani.
The army is Pakistan’s strongest institution, and Kayani the nation’s most powerful leader, but he “has to be very careful,” said Lt-Gen (Retd) Talat Masood.
Like others interviewed, he doubted Kayani’s underlings would try to unseat him in an intra-army coup, but he noted occasions in the past when disgruntled officers were found to be plotting against their chief.
These rumblings generally occurred after the army suffered an embarrassing defeat, most notably Pakistan’s 1971 loss of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, when India took 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war who weren’t released for a year.
Last month’s raid on the al Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad compound resurrected public comparisons to that Bangladesh debacle.
In one sign of dented military prestige, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the withdrawal of a two-star general after his men were caught on video killing an unarmed youth. The court took the unusual action “in light of the hostile environment in the society toward the military,” said defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.
The public disquiet weighs heavily on the officer corps and down through lower ranks, Masood said.
“It could all result in loose talk,” he said, but he thought it wouldn’t go beyond that. He noted that within days of the Bin Laden raid, Kayani met with key corps commanders in an effort to assure his ranking officers they had not been humiliated.
There’s “quite a lot of anger” within the military, Gen (retd) Jehangir Karamat, a former chief of staff himself, said in a telephone interview from the eastern city of Lahore.
“Maybe there is talk,” he told the AP. “Maybe anti-US feeling has gone up in the army. But actually there is in the country a whole lot of anger over the way it happened and the humiliation suffered, and it is inevitably reflected in the army.”
But, he added that “all this talk of him fighting for his job, his survival, I don’t see any signs of that.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2011.
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People oftenly laugh about the extension of Chief of Army Staff who sought almost three years extension from political elite and left the country’s people in the hands of stalwarts having zero credibility, after seeing all this horrific situation it seems government exists nowwhere else. Shame democracy has no comparison with dictatorship where not only rulling elite rather opposition plays friendly character and displays collusion in the furtherance of personal objectives. Now it has been fully realized by the people that extension negates the principle of best selection among the army ranks and to impart an equall opportunity to the talented senior army officer is the dire need of time by this way only we can encounter the strenuous challanges globally as well as domestically.
s are ignorant of everything. 1. If some people are yelling at the rights of "Baluchis or others", its a good sign. Give Baluchis development and human rights in return for retracting their demand for separation or face the Bangladesh situation. Do a national debate instead of hiding under the carpet. 2. Was there an enquiry after the Kargil or other debacles? Who has been punished? wheres the accoutability? What did we learn? Will we ever learn? 3. Dont we have any capable Generals? Why should the Generals keep getting extentions? 4. Is it necessary to keep Golf Courses, Business Ventures, BMW`s for Generals? 5. Will we ever know what happened at PNS? Will we ever be told the truth? If we dont learn, the history repeats itself. 6. Our soldiers are dying in the northwest & our politicians / Generals dont even know whose war we are fighting! 7. Do you know how much it costs to live a comfortable life in UK? from where did Musharraf (General) get so much money to live a comfortable life? Is it possible for one to live in UK with savings from ones salary in Pakistan? Am afraid that Delusional People like you who are not even willing to even see the stark realities will result in demise of my country. Please, what i want is Accountability! For every Life lost and every rupee of my country.t win? Let our Army run the bakeries, marriage halls, real estate, Golfcourses, steel mills, while every Talib or US Helicopters swoop in to the Army Base to capture their most wanted. Our Army/ISI Hall of Fame: 1. Wars (1948, 1965, 1971, Kargil), Losing half the country, 2. Military Dictatorship (Ayub, Gen Zia, Mush etc), 3. Recent events (Bhutto killings, Lal Masjid, OBL & Abbottabad Raid, GHQ Raid, PNS Raid, 26/11, Journo`s killings, Marriot Killings). To all these events, No One has been Arrested and Convicted by any court. Our Policy of Strategic Depth has killed more Pakistanis than our Enemies. Ofcourse, our politicians also lack vision and fare slightly better than Army, that they didnt half the country. My heart bleeds for the country & Jinnah would have tears in his eyes had he been alive.