Highs and Lows

Zardari appeared in a court of law when summoned; and much opprobrium on Commando, doing utmost to avoid appearance.

First off, let me, as a staunch defender of Civilian Rule and complete authority of elected governments over all departments say that I am delighted at news reports that the prime minister and the chief of army staff (COAS) frankly discussed the Commando’s trial and his reporting sick to the AFIC while on way to court to be arraigned. Indeed, it is great news to hear that the prime minister (PM) asked the COAS directly whether he was in the know of the Commando’s dash to the safety of the AFIC.

As a former soldier, I am gratified that we seem now to have a straight soldier in General Raheel Sharif, who directly informed the PM he had no idea about the Commando’s change of route towards the AFIC instead of the court. I might add that when his name was first touted as the next COAS, I had tweeted that if he was anything like his brother, the brave Shabbir Sharif NH, he would make a great COAS.

Congratulations to General Raheel Sharif; if he is anything like his brother he will make a great Chief of Army Staff. Very good man was he!

— Kamran Shafi (@KamranShafi46) November 27, 2013

A short anecdote: while Shabbir Sharif was senior to me by three years (he was the Commando’s course-mate), we knew each other from Lahore where I was at FC College and he was preparing to go into the army, where we happened to meet in Sialkot when he was Adjutant of 6 FF, 8^th Infantry Division and I was a Company Commander in 4 Baloch in 15 Division, my battalion posted at Marala.

It so happened that my battalion was to take its turn as the ceremonial battalion in Sialkot: mounting guards at the Div HQs and the GOC’s house, etcetera when we realised that our newly ordered tents and shamianas and kanats and such like destroyed in the just concluded war had not been delivered by the manufacturers.

So off I went to the other two battalions — 21 FF and 22 Baloch — in our Brigade to borrow the stuff (called ‘taking on loan’ in the army) and was turned down flat! What do I do now, I thought furiously, just then remembering that Captain Shabbir Sharif was Adjutant of 6 FF. He met me graciously and immediately sent for the Subedar Major and asked him to take the JCO accompanying me, to open up the Battalion Stores and loan us whatever we wanted.

So it was that we were saved from the extreme embarrassment of having to put up tattered tents and paraphernalia by a unit of another Division. That was the large-hearted man he was, Shabbir Sharif. Some years later, he, Asad Ali Khan ‘Rocky’ and I were neighbours in Abbottabad when these two were at the PMA and I was Adjutant of the Baloch Centre. As a matter of fact, our children: my Anwar; ‘Rocky’s’ Saad and Shabbir’s Taimoor were born within days of one another! ‘Rocky’ has also passed on and may he and Shabbir rest in peace.

However, we are still confused. Who in God’s name ordered the route-lining all the way from Rawal Chowk to the AFIC? Someone must have, for these things do not happen as if by magic: it is up to the government to find out who did.

And now on to the Wah valley and the once pristine little River ‘Dhamra’ that flowed through it and General Mahmud Durrani’s writing about it in The News on January 8. It is excellent he has lent his strong voice to the campaign to point out and do something about cleaning it up so that its marine life comes back to life.

His is a strong voice because he is a former chairman of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), and has asked the incumbent chairman and past chairmen to come together and do something about cleaning up the river by controlling effluents flowing into it, not only from the POFs but from factories upstream too.

There is only one way if you ask me; and that is for the POFs to ‘adopt’ this river. This is important because the villages/townships situated along its banks are mainly tenanted by POF workers and supervisory staff. Also, the POFs need to control the building spree on the Wah Hill which, as pointed out earlier in this space, is the reason for the pollution that is finding its way into the hills and thence into the water that flows through subterranean channels in it.

This does not mean that the POFs buy the Hill, which will prove prohibitively expensive: just that zoning laws be enforced, allowing owners to grow trees and grapevines only, at the same time keeping a strict watch on the safety levels of the chemical sprays used.

The factories should do this on an emergency basis because the main source of the factories’ drinking water is fast becoming polluted. I, for my part, being a resident of Wah Village offer my services gratis, for any job that might be assigned to me.

And now, kudos to former president Asif Ali Zardari for appearing in a court of law when summoned by the said court; and much opprobrium on the Commando, a full general of this man’s army, doing his utmost to avoid appearance in another court despite having repeatedly said, muscles rippling: “Mein kissey say darta warta naeen ‘oon”, putting on his ‘bravado accent’. This is not good, not good at all: not for the army ‘brass’ (his words, not mine); not for the country.

Incidentally, might one ask where the ‘150 Generals; Air Marshals and Admirals’ were when the latest show was put on by the Commando’s buddies led by my erstwhile colleague and friend Javed Alam? I believe just ‘50-60’ showed up this time around at the Ramada where as one army discussion board put it, the mood was ‘ominous’.

Well, the Commando has now been summoned on January 16 after the court has thoroughly studied his medical report (which includes maladies afflicting 89 per cent of people his and my age!). Let us see what shenanigans he comes up with now.

In the end, might I say one more time that the Commando’s main problem is the brilliance of his lawyer, Ahmad Raza Kasuri aka The Duke of Kasur during our college days!

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2014.

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