PAKISTAN THINK TANK COMMENTARY BY KHURRAM SHAIKH
Monday, February 27, 2012
The reality about the military belies the critics. Whenever duty called, the sons and daughters of the soil did not hesitate to lay down their lives for the defence and honour of the nation. Instead of demanding rewards or concession for the soldiers’ sacrifices, their families take pride in the ultimate sacrifice their loved ones offered for the nation.
But if the critics would have their way, they would give no credit at all to the military. TV anchors frequently cook up unsubstantiated threats from the military, never missing an opportunity to malign the armed forces of Pakistan. But they don’t mind the extremists blow countless innocent civilians into smithereens.
Every time Pakistan faced a natural calamity, who pulls out the dead from destroyed homes and rescues millions of people during the disaster? While Mr Zardari went on vacation and Mr Gilani visited fake camps, it was the military that was taking care of the injured during the floods. Similarly, politicians like Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who never lifted a finger to help people in calamities, is now shamelessly criticising the military, accusing it of consuming the largest chunk of the national budget. But he is the same person who destroyed the banks of a water channel to save his own properties, and in the process drowned his poor neighbours.
The critics of the military need to realise that members of the same military they all love to bash are tied down in fighting the monsters created by others. It was Naseerullah Babar of the PPP who created the Taliban, and it was the PML-N government of Nawaz Sharif which allowed fundraising for the terrorists by installing donation boxes at every street corner for the so-called Mujahideen.
The critics never talk of the glorious victories of the Pakistani military, like those in the Rann of Kutch and Chawinda. They never mention how the Pakistani air force dominated the skies in wartimes and kept at bay the Indian air force, which is four times the size of the PAF. How many times have they recalled the exploits of PAF aces like M M Alam, who in a single minute shot five Indian warplanes out of sky? If they took pride in their military and bothered to look for them, there are plenty of examples of the valour and courage of the members of the Pakistani armed forces.
Unfortunately, unlike Indians who count even their defeats as victories, we don’t even take credit for our victories. The defeatists tirelessly cite the loss of East Pakistan as an example of the military’s defeat at the hands of India. To begin with, it was a national tragedy and not a defeat of the military. By all accounts, antagonisation of the Bengalis was initiated by politicians like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. But it was the vastly outnumbered military that paid with their blood for the sins of the greedy politicians. Pakistani officers and soldiers were prisoners of war in India after the tragedy of 1971. Interestingly, not one politician became a PoW. Today, some politicians shamelessly boast about their own time spent in jail and want to be rewarded for that. On the other hand, not a single soldier ever demands the smallest compensation for having put his very life in danger for the protection of the country.
Without a doubt, there are a small number of senior military officers whose greed got the best of their values. But the overwhelming majority of officers are honourable and brave men and women, who are ready to sacrifice their lives at a moment’s notice. Shame on the critics for maligning the military, while they themselves, at the first sign of trouble, run away from the scene in their bullet-proof cars. If the critics believe the military is only a burden on Pakistani society, then they should have a parliamentary resolution passed to get the sole functional institution of Pakistan disbanded. Or else they should give it its due honour.
The writer is a freelancer.
