Of comeuppances, and superior airs

Doesn’t Kayani know criticism is aimed ONLY at senior ranks i.e., major generals and above, their equivalents?

Honestly! Had it been the prime minister who was insolent in a statement before My Lords of the Supreme Court, and had he been slapped down as fiercely as former chief of army staff Aslam Beg, every ‘Ghairat Mand’ (GM) newspaper would have headlined the story and every ‘GM’ anchor would have galloped with it, salivating at the humbling of an elected official. Let us recall that before his second (and most correct and respectful) appearance before the Hon’ble court, the PM was even termed a ‘villain’ by the ‘GM’ press.

As it happened in the present case though, the only English newspaper that gave this former general’s impertinence, and his comeuppance, the prominence it deserved was this newspaper of record. And well done, The Express Tribune. All the others hid the words within the stories of that day’s happenings in the SC to their great discredit. Not one teensy weensy headline. Bad.

Let us recall, that Beg still a little hung-over from the days he was the mighty COAS of this blighted country more than two decades ago (!), thanked the court “for making me complete my ‘hat-trick’ of appearing thrice before this apex court – first before CJ Afzal Zullah, second time before CJ Sajjad Ali Shah and now before this honourable court under the dynamic leadership of CJ Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. This is an honour bestowed on me, which no other COAS can possibly claim”. My, my, sarky what!

I was present in the court that day and was pleased to see the majesty with which My Lords reacted to Beg’s abhorrent way of talking down to the highest and mightiest court in the land just because he was once a general. “Is he here to play golf”, asked My Lord the Chief Justice of Beg’s counsel; “He should tender apology or we will take him to task”. Which the mighty general did, with alacrity.

I might add that those of us who have long fought for the supremacy of elected civilians and high civilian bodies such as parliament and the superior judiciary over the exclusive Club of Generals who make up the higher command echelons of the army, should be much heartened too, by a remark made by My Lord Khilji Arif Hussain, as reported in this newspaper of record (March 10): “Your air of superiority remains unchanged, along with your mantra of ‘bloody civilians’.

However, whilst we are rightly elated at the small scratches that are appearing in the Teflon-coating of our generals, we should realise that this ‘air of superiority’ will take time to dissipate to the point that they begin to look upon us ‘bloody civilians’ as their equals. As is amply demonstrated by some remarks passed by the present COAS at a reception in Islamabad and reported in the press on the March 15. Referring to the Mehran Bank scam, Kayani said words to the effect that it had happened 20 years earlier and discussing it now was fighting history. “We should learn from the past, live in the present with a focus on the future,” he said.

‘Fighting history’? How is it fighting history when a petition pending in the highest court is heard after 16 years and the then chief of the army and the ISI come out as the main players in an alleged scheme to queer the pitch for a particular political party? One should have thought that Kayani would have taken a page out of the gentlemanly General Waheed Kakar’s book and have said it was good that the SC was hearing the case at long last and that it should take it to its logical conclusion. Pity he did not.

On another matter of grave import Kayani is reported to have said that ‘the ruthless criticism of ISI in Pakistan was far higher than any criticism made on RAW, Mossad or the CIA in India, Israel or USA’. Well, true, but does he realise that the foreign intelligence agencies named are not in the face of their own citizens on a daily basis as is our very own ISI? When was the last time that any of the agencies named, first starved and then dumped bodies of so-called terrorists by the roadside? Much more than that whilst Mossad and CIA have had some uniformed officers as their chiefs and RAW has always had a civilian as its head, the ISI is virtually an army formation.

On yet another, he is reported to have said: “The debate (on TV channels) does not support national institutions as it works to de-motivate soldiers performing their duties in 20˚Celsius below the freezing point. We need to motivate our soldiers instead of demoralising them by such debates” — (Pakistan Today, March 15). This is emotional blackmail, pure and simple. Who has EVER criticised our sons (and daughters now that we have women in combat roles) fighting for the country on the front-lines? Doesn’t Kayani know that the criticism is aimed ONLY at the senior ranks i.e., major generals and above, and their equivalents in the other Services?

It is sad indeed, that after all of the catastrophes (for there is no better word to describe the utter command failures) brought upon the country in the last year that Kayani should still say that he had ‘taken a “conscious decision” to keep his institution out of politics’. I hope the ISPR can help him recall just how many times over the past four years I have called upon the army to please take over one more time so that every future wannabe Bonaparte would have nightmares even countenancing such an event, even in 2092! It is nothing but arrogance to even think in this way. Conscious decision indeed!

P.S. I salute General Asad Durrani for standing tall in the SC and saying in a clear and strong voice that as a general of the Pak Army he should not have done what he did. Well done, sir. Respect.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2012.