They are not inviting the military to stage a coup but to come in for a short period and clear up the mess.
KARACHI: This is with reference to Mazhar Abbas’s letter of July 28 titled “Stop inviting the military”. I agree with Mr Abbas in that we should not invite the military to take over the country because of its past deeds and the actions of generals against elected governments. But the nation cannot sit as a silent spectator when the country is being systematically destroyed. There is complete absence of governance and stories of massive corruption are doing the rounds too often to simply ignore them. The country’s largest city experiences massive bouts of target killing every few days while the federal government openly flouts the Supreme Court’s orders. So, if some political parties and people from society are demanding that the military step in and take charge then perhaps that view has some justification. The point to understand is that they are not inviting the military to stage a coup but to come in for a short period and clear up the mess.
Both the Supreme Court and the Pakistan Army must act in the larger interest of the country and ensure that the rule of law prevails since for now our lawmakers have assumed the role of lawbreakers. In our past, civilian governments have had no qualms about inviting the military for short periods of time to sort out things, and this has been done, after which the military went back to the barracks. Ordinary people are fed up of seeing dead bodies pile up on a daily basis and the government doesn’t seem bothered in the least.
Lt.-Col. (retd) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt
197/11 DOHS
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2011.
